.:  « 


RfiCTICAL 


PRACTICAL  CHEIROSOPHY 


A  SYNOPTICAL   STUDY   OF 


The  Science  of  the  Hand 


BY 


EDWARD   HERON-ALLEN 

«miOR   OF   "  A    MANUAL  OF   CHEIROSOPHY."  "  THE   SCIENCE  OF  THE   HAND," 
"  A   DISCOURSE  OK  CHVROMANC1E,"   "  CODEX   CH1ROMANTM5,"   ETC. 


Explanatory  Tlates  and  diagrams 


ROSAMUND  13RUNEL  HORSLEY 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

G.     P.     PUTNAM'S    SONS 
($be  ftnicftcrbochet 
1897 


COPYRIGHT.  1887, 
BY  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


To  the  Memory 
Of  days  that  are  fast,  and  of  hours  that  have  long  gone  by . 

INSCRIBED 

With  the  name  of  a  Friend 

Whose  gentle  hands  have  turned  the  last  leaf 

Of  a  book  that  is  ended: 

U  Dedicate 

THESE   LABOURS   OF    MINE   IN   A  NEW  WORLD 


2049506 


&j/  &*;**  <^yb 

*ju& 

XT 


CONTENTS. 


Man 

PREFATORY  EXCUKSTON 9 

INTRODUCTION  .    .            •     -    .                 13 

PART  I.  — HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND  CUSTOMS   ...  23 

PART  II.  —  THE  PHYSIOC-UGI  OK  THE  HAND    ....  33 
PART  III.  — ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS:   CHEIROG- 

NOMY 45 

PART  IV.  — CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY 86 

5 


LIST  OF  PLATES. 


PAGE 

1     THE  BONES  OF  THE  HAND 39 

II.    THE  THUMB,  THE  JOINTS,  AND  THE  LINES  IN 

THE  HAND 51 

III.  THE  ELEMENTARY  HAND 63 

IV.  THE  SPATULATE  HAND 67 

V.    THE  CONIC  HAND „    .    .  71 

VI.    THE  SQUARE  HAND 75 

VII.    THE  KNOTTY  HAND 79 

VIII.    THE  POINTED  HAND 83 

IX.    THE  MOUNTS  OF  THE  PALM 93 

X.    THE  LINES  AND  MOUNTS 97 

XI.    THE  LINES  AND  MOUNTS 101 

XII.    AGES  UPON  THE  LINES  OF  LIFE  AND  FORTUNE,  107 

XIII.    THE  LINES HI 

7 


PREFATORY    EXCURSION. 


THE  first  lecture  that  I  had  the  pleasure  of  giving 
in  the  United  States  was  delivered  from  the  notes 
from  which,  in  turn,  this  little  book  has  been  written, — 
has  been  written  in  odd  moments  saved  from  the  wreck 
of  time,  amid  the  rapids  of  existence  in  New  York.  It 
is  therefore,  perhaps,  necessary  that  I  should  apologize 
for  the  manner  in  which  I  have  dealt  with  a  subject 
that  stands  in  no  need  of  any  apology  in  itself,  and 
should  offer  this  word  of  explanation  of  the  style  in 
which  this  Opusculum  has  been  prepared.  In  revising 
the  transcript  of  the  stenographic  notes  which  I  caused 
to  be  taken  of  that  lecture,  I  have  frequently  been 
astonished  at  my  own  temerity  in  attempting  to  dis- 
cuss, within  such  narrow  limits  of  time  and  space,  a 
subject  so  vast  as  that  of  The  Hand ;  were  it  not  that 
I  had  pledged  myself  to  the  preparation  of  this  per- 
manent record  of  the  remarks  I  was  enabled  by  the 
time  at  my  disposal  to  make,  I  should  more  than 
once  have  laid  down  my  pen  in  despair. 

9 


IO  PREFATORY  EXCURSION. 

I  have  done  what  I  could,  during  the  process  of 
revision,  to  give  to  my  work  the  semblance,  at  any 
rate,  of  a  completeness  which  it  does  not,  —  cannot, 
possess ;  but  even  now,  at  the  moment  that  the  sheets 
are  ready  to  leave  the  press,  I  am  overwhelmed  by 
the  knowledge  of  my  inability  to  give  completeness 
even  to  a  sketch  of  the  subject  which  has  been  identi- 
fied with  my  name  in  two  continents.  At  the  request, 
therefore,  of  a  number  of  those  who  were  unable  to 
be  present  on  that  occasion,  and  whom  I  shall  never 
—  in  deference  to  a  deeply  rooted  national  aversion 
to  twice-told  tales  —  be  able  to  address  to  the  same 
effect  in  the  future,  I  deliver  these  sheets  to  the 
piinter,  "  not  as  a  guaranty  of  good  faith, '  but  for 
publication,"  in  the  hope  that  in  gratifying  a  widely 
expressed  curiosity  with  regard  to  that  lecture,  I  shall 
not  offend  those  to  whom,  like  myself,  the  Science 
of  Cheirosophy  is  a  not  un-important  branch  of  the 
great  study  of  human  nature,  —  a  branch  incapable  of 
being  adequately  honored  between  the  covers  of  a 
"  Hand-book  "  —  the  term  being  used  in  the  literary 
and  not  the  Cheirosophic  sense. 

I  have  taken  advantage  of  the  "  cool  reflection  " 

*  ivhich  has  followed  the  delivery  of  my  lecture,  to  add 

ft  few  passages,  which  I  would  fain  have  introduced 


PREFA  TOR  Y  EXCURSION'.  1 1 

into  my  discourse,  did  I  not  hold  it  to  be  a  lecturer's 
duty  to  his  audience,  to  be  as  brief  as  circumstances 
will  permit.  I  have  also  utilized  the  opportunities 
thus  offered  me,  to  append  a  fairly  complete  system  of 
notes,  which  may  help  those  of  my  readers  who  feel  a 
sufficient  interest  in  the  subject  to  probe  the  matters 
referred  to  more  deeply;  and  I  have  further  made 
reference,  where  it  has  seemed  necessary  or  advisable, 
to  my  larger  works  on  the  Science  of  Cheirosophy,  so 
that  this  little  work  may,  as  it  were,  serve  for  an  ele- 
mentary guide  to  the  study  of  those  larger  volumes. 

J[  claim  the  indulgence  of  the  public  for  this  little 
book  on  one  ground  alone :  that  it  may  serve  as  an 
introduction  to  the  Science,  for  many  whose  attention 
has  not  hitherto  been  called  to  its  value  as  a  practical 
means  of  diagnosing  the  characters  of  our  fellow-men. 
May  I  hope,  that  in  awakening  a  new  interest  in  the 
minds  of  some  of  my  readers,  I  have  acted  for  them 
as  pioneer  along  a  path  which  may  lead  them  —  who 
knows  ?  —  to  a  solution  of  the  intricate  problem  that 
must  so  often  have  perplexed  them,  —  I  mean  them- 
selves ! 

ED.   HERON-ALLEN. 

EVERETT  HOUSE,  NEW  YORK, 
Jan.  7, 1887. 


PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  pleasure  with  which  I  approach  the  task 
which  I  have  undertaken,  in  attempting  to 
record  in  this  form  the  remarks  I  have  been 
privileged  to  make  from  the  lecture-platform,  is 
sensibly  modified  by  regret,  —  regret  that  the 
space  at  my  disposal  is  far  too  limited  to  enable 
me  to  write  a  fractional  part  of  what  I  should 
wish  to  record  upon  a  subject  which  has  been 
one  of  intense  interest  to  me  in  the  years  that 
are  past,  and  which  is  one  which  touches  us  all 
very  nearly.  The  subject,  however,  has  this 
one  great  advantage :  it  stands  in  no  need  of 
any  preliminary  apology ;  its  importance  is  its 
own  introduction  ;  and  I  will  therefore  address 
myself  at  once  to  the  subject  that  we  have  be- 
fore us,  and  call  your  attention  to  some  points 
which  I  trust  will  interest  you  in  connection 
with  the  human  Hand. 

'3 


14  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

There  is,  I  think,  no  need  for  me  to  lay  em- 
phasis upon  the  paramount  importance  of  the 
hand  in  the  human  economy.  This  has  been 
acknowledged  ever  since  Aristotle,  in  the  fourth 
century  before  Christ,  called  it  "  the  organ  of 
the  organs,"  '  the  active  agent  of  the  passive 
powers  of  the  entire  human  system ;  and  we,  in 
these  latter  days,  shall  hardly  be  prepared  to 
controvert  this  statement,  when  we  reflect  that 
there  exists  no  human  action,  and  hardly  any 
rite  or  ceremony,  in  which  the  hand  is  not,  if 
not  prime  agent,  at  least  an  important  actor. 
Look  only  at  the  fountain-head  of  all  knowledge, 
—  literature:  is  it  not  by  means  of  the  works 
of  their  hands,  by  their  writings,  that  we  are  en- 
abled to  hold,  as  Galen  says,2  converse  with  all 
the  venerable  sages,  both  of  remote  antiquity 
and  of  the  recent  past,  with  all  those  intellectual 
heroes  who  have  bequeathed  to  us  in  writing 
the  intellectual  treasures  of  their  own  divine 
imaginations  ? 

We  have  only  to  pass  from  this  to  the  con- 
templation of  the  manufactures  (which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  conceive,  were  men  created 
without  hands),  to  be  brought  to  this  inevitable 

1  IIEPI  znnN  MORION.    Book  iv.  cap.  9. 

2  De  Usu  Partium  Corporis  Humani.    Book  L  cap.  i. 


INTROD  UCTION.  1 5 

conviction  :  —  that  (to  borrow  an  illustration 
from  Darwin)  it  is  by  his  hands  that  man 
hangs,  monkey-like,  from  the  branches  of  the 
Tree  of  Knowledge. 

Not  only  in  writing  and  in  manufactures,  but 
in  verbal  instruction,  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  senate, 
and  in  the  drama,  the  part  which  is  played  by 
the  human  hand  is  one,  the  importance  of  which 
has  occupied  the  attention  of  the  highest  au 
thorities  in  these  matters  ;  and  the  varied  emo- 
tions, expressions,  and  significations  which  may 
be  conveyed  by  the  hands  alone  have  been  made 
the  subject  not  only  of  celebrated  passages  in 
the  works  of  such  writers  as  Quintilian  the 
orator,3  and  Montaigne  the  essayist,4  but  of 
entire  works  upon  the  movements  and  gestures 
of  the  hands  as  an  aid  to  oratory.5  What  could 
be  more  significant  as  a  practical  confirmation 
of  what  I  say,  than  the  fact  that  after  the 
murder  of  Cicero  at  Caieta,  his  hands  as  well 
as  his  head  were  sent  to  be  exposed  in  the 
Roman  Forum,  as  the  means  whereby  he  had 
cajoled  and  deluded  the  Roman  citizens  ? 


3  De  Institutione  Oratorica.     Book  xi.  cap.  3. 

4  Apologie  de  Raimond  Sebond.     Book  ii.  cap.  12. 

5  Sc.  J.  Bulwer :   Chirologia ;  or  the   Naturall  Language  of  the 
Hand.     (London,  1644.) 


1 6  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

The  ancients  were  therefore  actuated  by  the 
keenest  reasoning  in  looking  upon  the  amputa- 
tion of  the  hands  as  the  severest  punishment 
which  they  could  inflict  upon  their  enemies ; 6 
for  a  man  without  hands  is  not  even  the  ninth 
part  of  a  man.  He  simply  cumbers  the  earth,  so 
far  as  any  practical  utility  is  concerned  :  though 
there  have  been  recorded  many  instances  of 
curious  and  minute  forms  of  workmanship,  and 
even  the  playing  of  such  musical  instruments 
as  the  violin,  being  effected  by  persons  who 
have  been  either  born  without  hands,  or  have 
been  deprived  of  them  early  in  life ;  even  down 
to  the  instance  quoted  by  Sir  Charles  Bell,'  of 
the  Russian  beggar  born  without  arms,  who, 
haunting  a  wood  a  short  distance  from  Mos- 
cow, used  to  murder  wayfarers  by  stunning 
them  with  a  blow  of  his  head,  dragging  them 
into  the  wood,  and  despatching  them  with  his 
teeth. 

Many  celebrated  men  have  been  one-handed. 
We  know  that  Nelson  lost  his  right  arm  at 
Teneriffe,  and  Cervantes  the  use  of  his  left  at 
the  battle  of  Lepanto  in  1751  ;  but  these  acci- 

6  Xenophon :  'EAAHNIKON.     Book  ii.  cap.  I  (31). 

7  The  Hand:  its  Mechanism  and  Vital  Endowments.     (London, 
1832.) 


INTRODUCTION.  I/ 

dents  did  not,  in  the  former  case,  interfere  with 
the  talents  of  Horatio  Nelson  as  Lord  High 
Admiral  of  the  Fleet,  nor  in  the  latter  prevent 
the  evolution  of  those  heroes  of  romance  — 
Don  Quixote  and  Sancho  Panza.  Still,  all  such 
cases  must  be  looked  upon  as  historic  excep- 
tions ;  and  we  come  back  to  the  original  com- 
ments of  Anaxagoras  and  of  Aristotle,  to  the 
effect  that  man,  being  the  wisest  of  all  animals, 
has  alone,  of  all  animals,  been  gifted  with 
hands,  the  instruments  of  his  high  intellectual 
faculties.8 

To  echo  my  words,  I  have  said  that  man 
alone  of  all  animals  has  hands  :  that  is  to  say,  in 
no  other  creature  do  we  find  either  extremities 
so  perfectly  articulated,  or  mental  powers  so 
highly  developed  ;  and  commencing  at  the  low- 
est forms  of  animal  life,  and  progressing  up- 
wards along  the  scale  of  created  beings,  the 
eminent  natural  historian,  Milne  Edwards,  has 
observed 9  that  "  the  faculties  of  the  mammalia 
are  elevated  in  proportion  as  their  extremities 
are  the  better  constructed  for  prehension  and 
touch."  And,  to  go  a  step  farther,  we  find  an 

"  Aristotle  and  Galen:  vide  the  passages  quoted  in  notes  i 
and  2. 

9  A  Manual  of  Zoology.    (London,  1863.)     §§  306-343. 


IS  PRACTICAL   CIIE1ROSOPHY. 

ascending  scale  of  intelligence  among  the  ani- 
mals which  are  gifted  with  the  nearest  approach 
to,  and  best  substitutes  for,  hands ;  as  in  the 
case  of  the  elephant,  an  instance  which  has 
been  cited  both  by  Lucretius  and  by  Cicero.10 

Sir  Richard  Owen,  in  a  most  interesting  little 
book  "On  the  Nature  of  Limbs,""  has  traced 
step  by  step  the  homologies  between  the  human 
hand  and  the  paws  of  the  brute  creation,  with 
the  effect  of  demonstrating  that  the  third  rin- 
ger is  the  one  digit  that  no  animal  is  without, 
and  that  as  the  extremities  become  less  and 
less  articulated,  that  is  to  say  jointed,  so  as  to 
be  capable  of  varied  movement,  it  is  the  outer 
fingers  which  we  discover  by  comparative  anat- 
omy to  be  missing,  and  it  is  the  third  or  middle 
finger  that  represents  in  man  the  hoof  of  the 
horse,  and  of  such  animals. 

To  man,  then,  and  to  man  alone,  is  the  per- 
fect construction  of  the  hand,  as  we  see  it, 
peculiarly  adapted  ;  and  it  is  to  man  alone  with 
his  varied  mental  and  physical  requirements, 
that,  as  Galen  remarked,  the  Creator  has  given, 
in  lieu  of  every  other  natural  weapon  or  organ 

10  Lucretius  :  De  Rerum  Natura.     Book  ii.  line  536.    Cicero  :  De 
Natura  Deorum.     Book  ii.  s.  123. 

11  London,  1849.     p.  29. 


INTRO  D  UCTION.  1 9 

of  defence,  that  exquisite  and  universally  en- 
dowed instrument,  THE  HAND. 

We  know,  that  as  different  orders  of  created 
beings  have  differently  constructed  extremities, 
so  various  races  of  men,  even  various  nations 
of  the  same  race,  show  marked  varieties  of 
characteristic  in  the  shapes  of  their  hands.  It 
is  my  intention  to  carry  the  question  farther 
still,  and  to  put  before  you  the  data  upon  which 
I  have  formed  my  unalterable  conviction  that 
not  only  do  these  clearly  marked  diversities  of 
characteristic  occur  between  the  hands  of  races 
and  of  nations,  but  that  in  every  community 
of  men  and  women  certain  physical  and  men- 
tal characteristics  are  clearly  signified  by  cer- 
tain concomitant  peculiarities  in  the  formation 
of  the  hands  ;  and  that  by  observing  these 
characteristics  of  the  hands,  we  may  read  off 
those  characteristics  of  the  mind,  by  means 
of  the  simple  and  physical  science  of  CHF.J- 
ROSOPHY. 

We  are  most  of  us  prepared  to  admit,  from 
the  sculptor's  point  of  view,  the  grandeur  and 
beauty  of  a  large  and  finely  modelled  male 
hand  ;  but  there  are  very  few  of  us  who  do 
not  confess  in  our  hearts  a  preference  for  the 
smooth  and  small  and  gently  moulded  hand  that 


20  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

characterizes  for  us,  what  has  been  called  justly 
the  softer,  and  unjustly  the  weaker,  sex,  favor- 
ably contrasting  such  hands  with  the  rough  and 
red  fist,  which,  according  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney, I2 
indicates  "robust  health,  a  warm  heart,  and 
distance  from  the  metropolis,"  or,  according  to 
Don  Quixote,  great  strength.'3  It  is  interesting 
to  note,  that  some  of  the  keenest  and  cleverest 
men  that  history  has  known  have  been  re- 
nowned for  the  elegance,  —  the  womanliness,  of 
their  hands.  Among  such  I  may  quote  the 
great  Sultan  Mahmoud  II.,  Lord  Byron,  and 
Pope  Leo  X. 

In  Persia,  the  hawthorn  blossom  is  called  the 
"white  hand  of  Moses,"  I4  and  "the  white  hand" 
is  always  looked  upon  as  the  symbol  of  inno- 
cence and  of  gratitude ;  '5  whence,  conversely, 
our  expression,  "red-handed,"  as  the  synonym 
of  guilt.  I  shall  have  something  to  say  later 
on  about  the  importance  attached  to  the  hand 
among  Oriental  nations,  at  present  I  have  said 

12  Vide  Ed.  Heron-Allen:  The  Science  of  the  Hand.     (London, 
1886.)    f  10. 

13  Don  Quixote :  Part  ii.  chap.  23. 

14  Rubaiyat  of  Omar-i-Khayyam.     Nicolas'  text  and  translation 
(Paris,  1867),  i86th  quatrain.     Fitzgerald's  translation  (Boston,  1886) 
fourth  verse. 

ls  Arabian  Nights  (Burton),  vol.  iv.  p.  185.  Ed.  Heron-Allen: 
The  Science  of  the  Hand,  ^  n. 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

enough  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  bases  upon  which  a  complete 
science  of  —  shall  I  call  it  divination  ?  —  has 
been  raised,  having  the  Human  Hand  as  its 
point  of  departure. 

Indeed,  indeed,  have  I  not  some  right  to 
claim  a  hearing  for  the  science  of  cheirosophy  ? 
The  labors  of  Johann  Kaspar  Lavater  have  cul- 
minated in  the  establishment  of  the  science  of 
physiognomy.16  The  untiring  researches  and 
efforts  of  Franz  Joseph  Gall  and  Johann  Kaspar 
Spurzheim  '7  have  secured  a  place  among  the 
sciences  of  to-day  for  that  of  phrenology.  Now, 
I  claim  your  attention  for  a  space  whilst  I  bring 
before  you  a  science  many  centuries  older  than 
either  of  these,  — a  science  which  I  trust  I  shall 
be  able  to  prove  to  you  to  be  more  easy  in  ap- 
plication, more  simple  in  acquisition,  and  more 
certain  in  its  results,  than  either  or  both. 

I  am  not  going  to  bore  you  with  theories.  I 
have  done  that  enthusiastically  in  my  two  larger 
works  on  the  hand.'8  I  ask  your  attention  now 

16  J.  K.  Lavater:    Physiognomische  Fragmente  zur  Beforderung 
der  Menschenkenntriss  und  Menschenliebe  (Leipzig,  1775-78). 

17  F.  J.  Gall :  Anatomic  et  Physiologic  du  systeme  nerveux,  et  du 
cerveau  en  particulier  (Paris,  1809-19). 

18  Ed.  Heron-Allen:  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy  (London,  1885). 
The  Science  of  the  Hand  (London,  1886).     New  York :  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  27  West  z^d  St. 


22  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

to  a  few  notes  upon  the  hand,  which  I  trust 
will  interest  you  as  much  as  they  have  inter- 
ested me,  and  to  a  short  exposition  of  the  actual 
principles  and  practice  of  my  science,  which 
may  help  you  to  understand  the  strange  prob- 
lems which  must  often  have  perplexed  you,  — 
namely,  yourselves. 


HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND   CUSTOMS.      2$ 


PART   I. 

HAND    SUPERSTITIONS    AND    CUSTOMS. 

I   HAVE,  before  this,  had  occasion  to  say  that 
I  believe  there  exists  no  symbolical  action, 
adopted  by  the  human  race,  in  which  the  hand 
does  not  play  a  —  or  THE  —  principal  part.     In 
proof  of  this,  let  us  revert  to  simplicity. 

How  many  times  a  day  do  we  shake  hands 
with  our  friends !  Sometimes  this  action  is 
quite  mechanical  and  meaningless ;  sometimes 
it  is  quite  the  reverse  :  but,  however  we  perform 
the  ceremony,  I  do  not  think  there  are  many  of 
us  who  remember  that  people  only  go  through 
it  with  one  another  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
they  are  not  concealing  a  weapon  wherewith  to 
surreptitiously  murder  the  person  with  whom 
they  are  shaking  hands.  Yet  such  was  the 
origin  of  hand-shaking.  Now,  indeed,  that  the 
custom  has  become,  as  I  say,  mechanical  and 
universal,  it  is  quite  a  study  by  itself, — the 
various  methods  in  which  people  go  through 
this  ceremony,  from  the  dreaded  individual  who 


24  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

shakes  hands  with  you  "like  that"  (as  Gilbert 
says),  to  the  haughty  person  of  whom  the  poet 
has  written,  — 

"  With  finger-tips  he  condescends 
To  touch  the  fingers  of  his  friends, 
As  if  he  feared  their  palms  might  brand 
Some  moral  stigma  on  his  hand  !  " 

Closely  allied  to  this,  is  the  custom,  which 
obtained  among  the  nations  of  classical  anti- 
quity, and  which,  indeed,  still  exists  among  sav- 
age tribes,  of  holding  up  the  hands  as  a  sign  of 
peace  before  coming  to  close  quarters  for  the 
purposes  of  palaver  ;  and  among  modern  civil- 
ized nations,  those  of  us  who  know  the  lonely 
moor  districts  of  England,  and  the  still  more 
lonely  prairie  roads  of  North  America,  may  per- 
haps have  been  disconcerted  by  the  sudden 
direction,  "  Hold  up  your  hands ! "  from  the 
mouth  of  the  casual  footpad :  the  signification 
in  each  case  being  to  demonstrate  the  fact  that 
the  person  so  placed  is  unarmed,  or  at  any  rate 
powerless  to  resist. 

Following  the  like  analogy,  —  the  abrogation 
of  all  power,  and  the  consequent  supplication 
for  mercy,  —  we  have  the  custom  of  folding  the 
hands  in  prayer,  a  custom  which  has  prevailed 


HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND   CUSTOMS.      2$ 

since  the  earliest  historic  times ;  '9  and  allied 
with  this  is  the  Oriental  rule  which  ordains 
that  the  hands  shall  be  hidden  in  the  presence 
of  a  superior,  by  crossing  the  arms,  or  by  hid- 
ing the  hands  in  a  fold  of  the  robe.  So,  again, 
in  giving  the  hand,  as  the  bride  does  in  the 
marriage  ceremony,  or  as  the  vassals  did  to  their 
lords  in  the  mediaeval  ceremony  of  the  homage, 
the  like  abrogation  of  will  is  intended  to  be 
symbolized.  From  this  we  get  to  the  kissing 
of  hands  —  perhaps  the  most  abject  expression 
of  humility  that  is  known  to  civilization,20  being 
reserved  solely  for  princes  and  fair  women,  to 
whom  in  this  manner  we  signalize  our  allegiance 
and  submission.  Of  course  I  do  not  overlook 
the  kissing  of  the  priest's  hands  in  the  celebra- 
tions of  the  Roman-Catholic  Church,  but  this  is 
more  a  matter  of  ritual  than  of  personal  homage 
from  man  to  man.2'  It  is  said  that  the  practice 
of  kissing  one's  hands  to  people,  by  way  of  salu- 
tation, is  a  relic  of  the  Parsee  fire-worship ;  the 
ancient  Persian  custom  being  to  place  the  hand 
upon  the  mouth,  and  raise  it  towards  the  sun.22 

J9  Aristotle:  Ilepi  KOO-/IOV:  Ke<£  Z*. 

20  Ed.  Heron-Allen :  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy.    Iffi  18,  19. 

21  F.  Rous :  Archeologicae  Atticae  (London,  1685),  p.  278. 

22  J.  Brand:  Popular  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain.     Hazlitt's  edi- 
tion (London,  1870). 


26  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

These  instances  are  sufficient  to  point  the 
fact  that  the  hand  is  more  or  less  universally  re- 
garded as  a  symbol  of  power.  To  such  a  point 
is  this  carried  by  the  Moslem  races,  that  in 
Morocco  even  the  number  five  is  never  men- 
tioned in  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  and  the 
fingers  of  the  hand  represent  a  rosary  of  the 
five  precepts  of  Islam ;  viz.,  "Belief  in  Allah  and 
in  Muhammad  his  prophet,"  "Prayer,"  "Alms- 
giving," "The  holy  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,"  and 
"The  Fast  of  Ramadan." 

Again,  we  find  traces  of  the  same  recognition 
in  a  thousand  different  words  and  phrases  bring- 
ing in  the  word  "hand,"  in  its  Latin,  Greek,  or 
English  forms,  with  the  signification  of  power 
or  initiative  force.23  Thus  we  have  many  such 
lines  in  Shakspeare,  as,  "  He  is  a  tall  man  of 
his  hands;"  and  in  Bacon,  as,  "At  an  even 
hand"  signifying  equality. 

Nothing  was  more  common,  at  one  time,  than 
the  oath  by  the  hand,  which  was  either  held  up, 
as  is  still  the  custom  in  Scotch  and  French 
courts  of  law,  or  laid  upon  the  altar  or  Bible ; 
customs  which  bring  us  to  the  various  religious 
rites,  such  as  the  laying-on  of  hands  in  the 
consecration  of  priests,  and  in  the  confirmation 

23  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy.    Tflf  14,  15. 


HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND   CUSTOMS.      2/ 

service.  The  episcopal  blessing,  which  is  given 
with  the  thumb  and  first  two  fingers  only  ex- 
tended, is  most  interesting  to  us  ;  for  its  signifi- 
cation is  thus  laid  down  in  works  upon  the 
ritual.2*  The  thumb  is  the  representative  of 
Unity  in  the  Godhead  —  the  cross,  by  the  by, 
in  baptism  is  directed  to  be  traced  upon  the 
child's  forehead  with  the  thumb  ; — the  first  fin- 
ger is  the  emblem  of  Christ,  the  indicator  of 
God's  will,  and  its  revealer  to  mankind.  So, 
too,  the  first  finger  was  held  by  the  older  chei- 
romants  to  be  the  representative  of  Jupiter. 
The  second  finger  represents,  in  the  ritual,  the 
Holy  Ghost.  So  that  the  three  digits  held  thus 
represent  the  Trinity,  which  is  invoked  in  the 
blessing.  The  ring  in  the  marriage-service  is 
placed  upon  the  third  finger,  in  token  that  after 
the  Trinity  the  man's  eternal  allegiance  is  given 
to  his  wife,  —  the  ring  being  the  symbol  of  eter- 
nity. In  the  old  marriage  service,  the  ring 
used  to  be  placed  on  the  thumb  and  the  first 
two  fingers  in  turn,  and  then  left  upon  the 
third  finger  of  the  woman's  hand.  This  also  is, 
of  course,  the  origin  of  the  position  of  the  fingers 
in  the  little  coral  or  metal  hands  worn  in  the 

24  Gulielmus  Durandus:   Rationale  Divinorura  Officiorum  (Ven- 
ice, 1589),  p.  140,  verso. 


28  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

south  of  Italy  to  avert  the  evil  eye,  the  hand 
being  cast  either  in  the  position  prescribed  for 
the  blessing,  or  in  that  known  as  "the  devil's 
horns."25  The  most  potent  of  these  charms  is 
that  known  as  the  Mano  Pantea,  in  which  the 
hand  is  embossed  with  various  symbols  of  occult 
meaning  but  infallible  power  ! 

Closely  connected  with  "the  laying-on  of 
hands"  was  the  old  ceremony  of  "touching  for 
the  king's  evil."  On  a  given  day,  people 
afflicted  with  particular  diseases  used  to  as- 
semble at  Whitehall ;  and  the  sovereign  used 
either  to  touch  them  personally,  or  used  to  have 
distributed  to  them  pieces  of  money,  or  rings, 
which  had  been  hallowed  by  the  royal  touch.26 
Many  authentic  accounts  of  this  ceremony  are 
to  be  found  in  contemporary  literature.  The 
custom  is  of  the  highest  antiquity.  Suetonius 
and  Tacitus  record  instances  of  cures  performed 
in  this  manner  by  the  Emperor  Vespasian  at 
Alexandria,  cures  which  are  wholly  marvellous 
in  the  recital  ;2?  and  as  late  as  the  reign  of 

25  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy.    ^  23,  24. 

26  Gentleman's  Magazine.     1747,  p.  13;  1751,  p.  414;  1829  (ii.), 
p.  499. 

27  Godwin's  Lives  of  the  Necromancers  (London,  1834),  p.  155 
Hume's  Essays,  Part  111.,  sect.  x. 


HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND   CUSTOMS.      2Q 

Queen  Anne,  Dr.  Johnson  was  touched  for 
some  real  or  fancied  ill  by  the  sovereign.  Her- 
rick  has  beautifully  recorded  such  a  cure  in  the 
lines :  — 

"  Oh,  lay  that  hand  on  me, 
Adored  Caesar,  and  my  faith  is  such, 
I  shall  be  cured,  if  that  my  king  but  touch. 
The  evil  is  not  yours,  my  sorrow  sings, 
Mine  is  the  evil,  but  the  cure  the  king's." 

Hesperidet. 

What  I  have  now  said  sufficiently  demon- 
strates the  importance  with  which  the  hand  has 
always  been  invested,  and  gives  us  some  insight 
into  the  atrocity  of  the  punishment  of  cutting 
off  the  hands,  which  was  so  much  in  vogue 
among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  which 
has  been  largely  practised  in  our  own  country 
[England],  and  which  exists  still  as  a  favorite 
form  of  punishment  among  Oriental  nations ;  a 
punishment  which  is  the  most  horrible  that  it 
is  possible  to  conceive,  for  it  entirely  and  per- 
manently precludes-  the  possibility  of  the  suf- 
ferer ever  making  his  own  living  honestly  in 
the  future.  As  late  as  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, this  punishment  was  inflicted  in  England 
upon  persons  who  should  commit  any  assault 
in  a  court  of  justice ;  and  Mr.  Pepys  refers 


30  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

graphically  and  quaintly  to  an  occasion  of  the 
kind.28 

From  the  cutting-off  of  hands  to  the  cutting- 
off  of  thumbs  is  but  a  short  step ;  and  from  the 
Roman  coward,  who  by  cutting  off  his  thumbs, 
lest  he  should  be  sent  to  the  wars,  produced 
the  modern  word  "poltroon"  (from  the  words 
pollice  truncato},  to  the  invention  of  the  thumb- 
screw by  the  Spaniards,  the  amputation  or 
mutilation  of  the  thumb,  as  being  the  most 
important  digit  of  the  hand,  has  been  awarded 
as  a  punishment  for  felonies  and  political  of- 
fences of  various  degrees. 

Upon  the  importance  of  the  thumb  in  the 
study  of  the  hand,  too  much  stress  could  not 
possibly  be  laid.  It  was  with  the  thumb  that 
the  Romans  spared  the  fallen  gladiator's  life, 
or  condemned  him  to  death  ;  it  is  by  licking 
his  thumb  that  the  Ulster  man  clinches  his 
bargains ;  whilst  it  was  by  biting  his  thumb  at 
Abram  that  Sampson,  in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet," 
engaged  the  adherents  of  the  Montagues  and 
Capulets  in  a  street  brawl.29  It  is  by  the  prick- 
ing of  her  thumbs  that  the  witch  in  "  Macbeth  " 
knows  that  "something  evil  her  way  comes,"  — 

28  Science  of  the  Hand,  Index:  sub  Amputation  of  the  Hand 
*»  Act  I.,  scene  2. 


HAND  SUPERSTITIONS  AND   CUSTOMS.      31 

a  peculiarity  of  this  digit  which  was  shared,  we 
are  told,  by  the  Irish  hero  Fingal. 

Who  is  there  who  has  never  heard  of  the 
itching  palm  3°  as  a  sign  of  avarice  ?  Stevens 
has  truly  observed  that  all  sudden  pains  of  the 
body,  which  cannot  immediately  be  accounted 
for,  were  anciently  assumed  to  be  presages  of 
events  about  to  happen.  This  theory  con- 
cerning the  itching  palm  has  been  developed 
from  a  much  older  one,  which  lays  it  down 
as  an  axiom  that  an  itching  palm  is  the  fore- 
runner of  a  coming  legacy,  or  gift  of  money, 
—  a  superstition  which  came  originally  from 
Persia.31 

Is  there  any  one  among  us  who  has  not  heard 
a  score  of  jingles  and  superstitions  concerning 
finger-nails?  Even  as  I  write,  there  come  flit- 
ting through  my  mind  the  old  rhymes  as  to  the 
days  for  cutting  them,  and  the  white  spots  which 
we  find  in  them.  As  to  what  are  the  right  days 
on  which  to  pare  the  nails,  the  superstitions  are 
innumerable  and  extremely  antique.  No  Roman 
citizen  would  ever  pare  his  nails  save  upon  the 
Ferics  Nunt&iue,  which  recurred  at  intervals  of 

30  Science  of  the  Hand.    ^[  4. 

31  G.Atkinson:  Customs  and  Manners  of  the  Women  of  Persia. 
lLondon,  1832.) 


32  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

nine  days;32  and  I  have  come  across  old  ladies 
in  country  districts  who  not  only  'choose  care- 
fully the  days  upon  which  to  cut  their  own  and 
their  children's  nails,  but  even  make  a' point  of 
cutting  them  over  the  leaves  of  the  Bible,  to 
insure  their  continuance  in  the  paths  of  honesty 
and  of  virtue.33 

32  Ausonius  :  Eclogarium,  373. 

33  Brand's  Popular  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain.     (London,  1870.! 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  HAND.          33 


PART   II. 

THE    PHYSIOLOGY    OF    THE    HAND. 

LET  us  devote  a  few  moments  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  exquisite  construction  of  the 
member  with  which  we  are  concerned  at  this 
present. 

The  first  thing  which  cannot  fail  to  strike  us 
at  once,  concerning  the  hand,  is  its  complete 
perfection.  In  no  other  combination  of  bones, 
muscles,  and  nerves,  and  in  no  other  animal, 
do  we  find  a  perfection  which  results  in  such 
superiority  with  regard  to  strength,  variety, 
rapidity,  and  extent  of  motion  ;  and  this  perfec- 
tion resulting,  as  it  undoubtedly  does,  from 
the  intimate  relations  which  exist  between  the 
hand  and  the  intellect,  we  are  irresistibly  com- 
pelled to  ask  with  Sir  Charles  Bell,  "Is  it  noth- 
ing to  have  our  minds  awakened  to  the  percep- 
tion of  the  numerous  proofs  of  design  which 
present  themselves  in  the  study  of  the  hand,  to 
be  brought  to  the  conviction  that  every  thing  in 
its  structure  is  orderly  and  systematic,  and  that 


34  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

the  most  perfect  mechanism,  the  most  minute 
and  curious  apparatus,  and  sensibilities  the 
most  delicate  and  appropriate,  are  all  combined 
in  operation  that  we  may  move  the  hand."34 
And  further,  we  are  bound  to  say,  with  Galen, 3S 
that  its  entire  structure  is  such  that  it  could 
not  be  improved  by  any  conceivable  alteration. 
In  the  human  hand,  each  part  is  subordinated 
to  a  harmonious  combination  of  function  with 
another  part,  and  each  by  a  special  modification 
of  its  own,  so  that  every  single  bone  is  distin- 
guishable from  another.  Each  digit  has  its  own 
peculiar  character  and  name ;  and  the  thumb 
which  among  the  lower  animals  is  the  least 
important  and  constant  of  the  five  digits,  be- 
comes in  man  the  most  important  of  all,  making 
the  member  "a  hand,"  properly  so  called,  as 
Professor  Sir  Richard  Owen  has  justly  re- 
marked ; 3&  the  hand,  which  characterizes  man 
alone,  in  justification  of  the  words  of  the  Persian 
poet,  Omar-i-Khayyam,  — 

"  Ten  Powers  and  nine  Spheres,  eight  Heavens  made  He, 
And  Planets  seven  of  six  sides  we  see  ; 
Five  Senses,  and  four  Elements,  three  Souls, 
Two  Worlds,  but  only  one,  O  MAN  !  like  thee."  37 

34   Op.  Clt.  35    Op,  cjt. 

36  On  the  Nature  of  Limbs.     (London,  1849.) 

3?  Whinfield's  translation,  verse  120.    (London,  1883.) 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  HAND.          35 

And  when  we  come  to  consider  the  question, 
it  is  the  thumb,  and  the  thumb  alone,  that 
gives  to  the  hand  the  finishing  touch  of  its  per- 
fection. Without  the  thumb,  how  impotent, 
comparatively  speaking,  the  grasp  of  the  fin- 
gers !  but  let  the  thumb  be  brought  into  oppo- 
sition and  action,  and  the  fingers  find  a  fulcrum 
whence  to  apply  'their  tremendous  leverage, 
and  the  hand  becomes,  for  its  size,  the  most 
powerful  mechanism  of  the  human  body. 

"  But,"  people  have  said  to  me,  "  I  can  never 
see  any  difference  between  the  hands  of  differ- 
ent people."  That  this  should  be  literally  the 
case,  seems  to  me  to  be  impossible,  regard  be- 
ing had  to  the  fact  that  man  is  a  sentient  being, 
endowed  with  powers  of  observation.  But  a 
very  little  experience  will  enormously  increase 
the  acuteness  of  those  powers  of  observation. 
And  just  as  the  specialist  and  the  connoisseur 
come  to  distinguish  infinitesimal  variations  in 
works  of  art,  just  as  the  banker's  clerk  detects 
the  forged  bank-note  after  it  has  deceived 
many  people  less  accustomed  to  handling  such 
things,  the  cheirosophist  very  soon  comes  to 
compare  mentally  the  hands  which  he  sees, 
with  all  those  that  he  has  ever  seen  before,  until 
the  classification  of  hands,  according  to  the 


36  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

leading  types  to  which  I  am  about  to  draw  your 
attention,  becomes  a  purely  mechanical  opera- 
tion, and  it  becomes  a  familiar  fact,  that,  just  as 
our  faces  and  characters  present  infinite  varia- 
tions, so  no  two  hands,  or  pairs  of  hands,  are 
identical. 

There  exists  a  very  interesting  account  of  a 
man  discovering  a  murderer  solely  by  the  con- 
volutions of  the  skin  upon  the  ball  of  the 
thumb. 

Visiting  the  scene  of  the  murder  shortly  after 
its  committal,  the  detective  found  upon  the  sill 
of  the  window  by  which  the  murderer  had  es- 
caped, an  imprint  of  the  spiral  lines  of  the  ball 
of  his  thumb  left  in  blood.  Tracing  this  care- 
fully, he  tracked  the  murderer  gradually  from 
place  to  place,  taking  impressions  of  the  balls 
of  hundreds  of  thumbs  on  his  way,  under  the 
pretence  of  telling  men's  fortunes  by  this  means ; 
but  he  never  found  a  figure  to  correspond  with 
the  one  traced  in  blood  at  the  scene  of  the  mur- 
der, until  he  found  the  murderer  himself,  and 
then,  suddenly  accusing  him,  brought  him  to 
confession  and  the  scaffold. 

This  infinite  variation  is  still  more  perceptible 
in  the  general  formation  of  the  hands ;  and  by 
a  careful  study  and  comparison  the  cheirosophist 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE   HAND.          37 

is  enabled,  as  I  shall  presently  show,  to  pro- 
nounce upon  the  capacities  of  the  owner  of  the 
hand,  just  as  the  sportsman  can  tell  from  the 
foot  of  the  dog  or  the  horse  the  breed  and  capa- 
bilities of  the  animal.  "  Ex  pede  Herculem"  is 
the  motto  upon  which  we  proceed  in  cheiroso- 
phy,  as  in  most  other  sciences  ;  and  by  studying 
the  infinite  variations  of  hands,  you  will  come 
imperceptibly,  and  by  degrees,  to  a  perfect 
understanding  of  the  varied  characteristics  of 
man. 

The  gradual  and  perfect  development  of  the 
hand  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  studies  of 
the  physiologist.  In  the  human  embryo,  when 
there  appears  no  definite  bodily  formation,  the 
rudimentary  hand  is  plainly  distinguishable. 
At  birth,  save  for  the  disproportion  of  the  palm 
to  the  fingers,  the  hand  is  perfectly  formed, 
and  the  main  osseous  construction  is  complete 
at  about  the  age  of  fourteen  ;  so  that  at  four- 
teen the  permanent  shape  given  to  the  hand  by 
the  mental  capacities  may  be  read  like  an  open 
book,  by  the  expert  in  cheirosophy.  This  per- 
fected development  of  the  hand  is  what  must 
next  occupy  our  attention  ;  though,  be  it  under- 
stood, I  do  not  propose  to  discourse  here  at 
length  as  I  have  done  in  "  A  Manual  of  Chei- 


38  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

rosophy,"  and  in  "The  Science  of  the  Hand," 
upon  the  anatomy  of  the  member.  Still  it  is  ne- 
cessary that,  before  impressing  upon  your  minds 
the  leading  types  of  hands,  you  should  be  in  a 
position  to  understand  by  the  development  of 
what  tissues  the  variations  of  those  types  are 
produced. 

The  skeleton  of  the  hand  consists  of  twenty- 
seven  bones,  eight  composing  the  carpus  or 
wrist,  five  composing  the  metacarpus  or  palm, 
twelve  forming  the  phalanges  of  the  fingers, 
and  two  forming  the  thumb.  (Plate  I.)  The 
small  bones  of  the  carpus,  fitting  exquisitely 
into  one  another  as  they  do,  have  their  articu- 
lating surfaces  covered  with  a  layer  of  cartilage, 
so  that  the  whole  forms  a  quasi-solid  and 
highly  elastic  mass,  which  is  gifted  with  enor- 
mous strength,  and  which'  forms,  as  it  were,  a 
"  buffer  "  which  is  capable  of  resisting  a  very 
powerful  jar  indeed.  This  mass  of  bones  is 
not  completely  developed  until  the  twelfth  year, 
which  accounts  for  the  fact  that  until  this  age 
the  wrist  is  comparatively  weak. 

The  five  long  bones  of  the  metacarpus  are 
slightly  incurved,  which  imparts  the  familiar 
hollowness  to  the  palm.  At  the  lower  ends  of 
these  bones,  a  little  mass  of  bone,  termed  an 


Plate  I.- THE  BONES   OF  THE  HAND. 

(Fr=ni  a  male  adult  skeleton.) 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  HAND.          41 

epiphysis,  becomes  gradually  developed,  and  at- 
taches itself  to  the  shaft  at  about  the  twentieth 
year.  This  adds  enormously  to  the  strength  of 
the  hand,  so  that  it  may  be  said  that  the  perfect 
ossification  of  the  hand  does  not  take  place  until 
that  time. 

The  fingers  consist,  as  we  see,  of  three  pha 
langes,  and  the  thumb  of  two,  which  correspond 
with  the  first  and  third  of  the  fingers,  the  mid- 
dle phalanx  being  absent.  Besides  the  little 
masses  of  bone  to  which  I  have  alluded  in  the 
metacarpus,  we  often  find  among  the  tendons 
at  the  joint  of  the  thumb,  little  embedded 
bones  termed  "sesamoid  bones:"  these  enor- 
mously increase  the  strength,  the  leverage,  of 
the  joints  ;  so  that  where  you  see  prominent 
joints  upon  the  thumbs,  you  may  always  be  sure 
of  finding  great  manual  strength. 

There  are  two  principal  layers  of  muscles  in 
the  hand,  a  superficial  and  a  deep  layer ;  they 
are  attached  to  the  ends  of  the  bones  by  means 
of  the  tendons  and  the  little  ridges  called  pro- 
cesses;  and  the  point  concerning  them,  to  which 
I  desire  to  call  your  attention,  is  the  exquisite 
mechanism  and  enormous  strength  of  these 
tendons,  which,  radiating  from  the  wrist,  give 
unlimited  variety,  and  almost  unlimited  force, 


42  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

to  the  movements  of  the  muscles  of  the  hands. 
You  see  these  particularly  when  the  back  of 
the  hand  is  made  rigid.  Observe  also  the 
powerful  tendon  of  the  thumb. 

The  hand  is  perhaps  more  liberally  supplied 
with  arteries  and  veins  than  any  other  member 
of  the  body.  It  is,  to  a  great  measure,  this  fact 
which  gives  to  the  hand  its  intense  keenness 
of  sensibility  of  touch.  There  used  to  exist  an 
interesting  old  superstition  (which  is,  I  regret 
to  say,  without  foundation)  to  the  effect  that 
the  third  finger  was  connected  directly  with  the 
heart  by  means  of  a  vein.38 

I  should  greatly  like  to  discuss  the  nervous 
system  of  the  hand,  but  the  space  at  my  disposal 
renders  such  a  discussion  impossible.  We  must, 
however,  bear  in  mind  that  the  nerves  are  more 
numerous,  more  delicate,  and  more  highly  de- 
veloped in  the  hand,  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  human  body,  excepting  perhaps  the  lips. 
In  the  hands  and  lips,  the  nerves  are  first  de- 
veloped in  the  human  subject;  and  it  is  for 
this  reason  that  a  baby  always  grasps  with  that 
nervous  infantile  clutch  any  thing  which  pre- 
sents itself,  and  carries  it  instinctively  and  im- 
mediately to  its  mouth  for  identification.  This 

38  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy.    ^f  37. 


THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  HAND.          43 

nervous  system  reaches,  as  you  know,  its  high- 
est development  in  the  skin ;  and  it  is  the  rows 
of  touch  corpuscles,  the  bulbs  at  the  ends  of 
the  nerves,  and  the  little  sensitive  heads  called 
"  pacinian  bodies,"  which  form  the  lines  in  the 
palms,  with  which  we  have  presently  to  deal. 
These  lines  are  formed  by  the  culminating 
points  of  the  sensory  apparatus,  and  not,  as 
people  are  so  fond  of  saying,  by  the  mere  fold- 
ing of  the  hands.  If  proof  were  required  of 
this  statement,  we  should  find  it  in  the  fact 
that  these  lines  are  found  in  the  palms  of  the 
hands  at  birth,  and  even  long  before  birth,  in 
the  human  infant.39 

Concerning  the  physiology  of  the  hand,  I  have 
done.  I  particularly  wanted,  however,  to  give 
you  a  few  leading  facts  in  this  connection,  be- 
cause the  formation,  the  physical  composition, 
of  the  hand,  like  that  of  every  part  of  the  body, 
depends  entirely  upon  the  uses  to  which  it  is 
put,  the  circumstances  and  physical  conditions 
which  surround  it  ;  in  a  word,  upon  the  mental 
characteristics  which  prompt  and  direct  those  uses 
to  which  it  is  put.  It  is  a  well-known  physio- 
logical fact,  that  upon  the  duties  imposed  upon 

39  Science  of  the  Hand,  p.  70,  note  91 ;  and  Quain's  Anatomy, 
vol.  ii.  p.  214. 


44  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY, 

the  limbs,  their  constitution  and  forms  depend  ; 
a  fact  of  which  I  have  treated  at  much  length  in 
"A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy."  I  am  therefore 
about  to  explain  to  you  the  science  of  cheiroso- 
'  phy  by  reading  these  data  backward :  that  is 
to  say,  I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  that  certain 
mental  and  physical  peculiarities  will  produce 
certain  given  forms  of  hand,  but  I  am  going  to 
show  you  certain  types  of  hands,  and  tell  you 
what  are  the  mental  characteristics  which  have 
brought  about  the  formation  of  those  types,  so 
that,  by  looking  at  the  hand,  you  can  tell  at  a 
glance  the  character,  the  instincts,  the  habits, 
and  the  intellectual  faculties  of  such  people  as 
you  may  be  thrown  into  contact  with. 

This  is  what  I  have  been  leading  up  to  ;  this 
is  the  science  of  cheirosophy  ;  and  this  is  the 
art  of  which  I  am  about  to  lay  before  you  what 
have  been  erroneously  called  "the  secrets." 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  45 


PART  III. 

ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS: 
CHEIROGNOMY. 

THAT  man  should  be  ever  striving  to  attain 
to  that  class  of  knowledge  which  is  known 
as  "  divination,"  is  hardly  strange ;  man's  na- 
ture, as  we  know  (alas,  too  well ! )  being  ever 
to  progress.  How  many  are  there  to-day,  who 
from  their  hearts  would  say,  like  Democritus, 
"  I  would  rather  be  the  possessor  of  one  of  the 
cardinal  secrets  of  nature,  than  of  the  diadem 
of  Persia." 

The  time  has  passed  when  such  studies  as 
this  should  be  met  only  with  derision.  Modern 
science  has  established  the  doctrine  of  the  fixity 
of  the  Laws  of  Nature.  We  know  that  the 
events  of  our  lives  succeed  one  another  in  con- 
sequence of  one  another;  that  the  whole  system 
of  human  existence  obeys  the  great  law  of  cause 
and  effect ;  and  judging  a  man's  character  by 
means  of  a  glance  at  his  physical  peculiarities 
is,  after  all,  merely  placing  implicit  faith  in  what 


46  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

Newman  Smyth  has  called  "the  divine  veracity 
of  nature."40  The  law  of  continual  development, 
which  has  evolved  astronomy  out  of  astrology, 
chemistry  out  of  alchemy,  and  craniology  out  of 
metoposcopy,  has  derived  yet  another  science 
from  an  original,  which  was  in  its  inception 
hardly  more  than  the  hap-hazard  and  conjectural 
vaticinations  of  the  impudent  charlatan ;  has 
brought  the  Science  of  Cheirosophy  out  of  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  Palmistry. 

No  one  will  deny  that  the  use  of  an  organ  or 
member  is  indicated  by  its  aspects ;  and  from 
the  use  indicated  by  the  aspects,  what  is  more 
easy  to  deduce  than  the  mental  characteristics 
which  prompt  that  use  ?  (Lavater  told  Goethe, 
on  one  occasion,  that  when  in  the  practice  of 
his  priestly  office  he  held  the  bag  in  church,  he 
tried  to  observe  only  the  hands ;  and  he  fully 
satisfied  himself  that  in  every  individual  the 
shape  of  the  hand  and  of  the  fingers,  and  their 
action,  were  distinctly  different  and  individually 
characteristic.) 

Again,  it  has  been  said  that  forced  labor  of  a 
particular  kind  will  entirely  alter  the  shape  of 
the  hands.  Now,  this  is  not  the  case.  Labor 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  inclinations  of  the 

40  Old  Faiths  in  New  Light  (New  York,  1879),  P-  252- 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  47 

mind,  if  forced  upon  an  individual,  will  often 
modify  the  outlines  of  a  hand ;  but  it  will  never 
alter  the  shape,  so  as  to  render  it  uncertain 
what  was  the  natural  bent  of  the  inclination. 
The  hand  cannot  alter.  And  it  is  here  that  I 
claim  for  cheirosophy  an  advantage  over  every 
other  science  of  the  kind.  The  phrenologist 
may  be  deceived  by  the  growth  of  the  hair ;  the 
physiognomist  may  be  led  astray  by  a  fixed  and 
unnatural  expression  of  the  face :  but  the  chei- 
rosophist  finds  in  the  hand  an  unvarying  and 
unalterable  indication  of  the  character,  a  mirror 
whose  images  the  bearer  is  powerless  to  distort. 
The  science  of  Cheirosophy  is  divided  into 
two  great  branches,  —  Cheirognomy,  or  the  sci- 
ence of  deducing  the  characteristics  of  man 
from  the  shape  of  his  hands  ;  and  Cheiromancy, 
or  the  art  of  expounding  to  man  the  events  of 
his  life,  and  the  inner  shades  of  his  character, 
by  an  inspection  of  his  palms.  The  latter  of 
these  two  branches  is  of  incomparable  antiquity, 
but  has  been  reduced  within  reasonable  bounds, 
and  invested  with  all  the  attributes  of  an  exact 
science,  only  within  the  last  fifty  years,  by 
Adrien  Desbarrolles.  The  former  is  a  compar- 
atively new  science,  having  been  formulated  at 
the  beginning  of  this  century  by  M.  le  Capi- 


48  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

taine  Casimir  Stanislas  d'Arpentigny,  whose 
book,  "La  Science  de  la  Main,"  it  has  been 
my  most  interesting  task  and  labor  of  love  to 
translate  and  to  annotate. 

M.  d'Arpentigny  first  had  his  thoughts  turned 
in  this  direction  whilst  serving  with  his  regi- 
ment in  the  Peninsular  war  in  the  year  1820. 
One  day,  walking  along  one  of  the  highroads  of 
Andalusia,  he  was  accosted  by  a  gypsy  woman, 
who  offered  to  read  for  him  his  fortune  upon 
his  palm  in  exchange  for  the  ordinary  douceur. 
The  language  in  which  she  clothed  the  indica- 
tions which  she  expounded,  struck  him  pro- 
foundly ;  and  from  that  day  forth  he  commenced 
to  study  the  works  of  the  older  cheiromants, 
and  to  observe  carefully  the  hands  of  all  with 
whom  he  was  thrown  in  contact.  Near  where 
he  lived  in  the  country  stood  the  house  of 
a  celebrated  mechanician  and  mathematician, 
whose  wife  was  imbued  with  a  strong  taste  for 
art.  The  result  of  this  opposition  of  taste  in 
husband  and  wife  was  that  they  gave  a  series 
of  alternately  artistic  and  scientific  receptions, 
to  which  Captain  d'Arpentigny  went  indiffer- 
ently. By  degrees,  he  found  that  he  could  class 
the  various  guests  of  his  host  and  hostess  by 
the  aspects  of  their  hands ;  and  going  a  step 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  49 

farther,  he  found  that  hands  might  be  classed, 
for  practical  purposes,  under  eight  categories,  — 
hands  which  belonged  to  any  one  of  seven 
clearly  accentuated  and  distinguished  types,  or 
to  an  eighth  class  consisting  of  hands  which 
could  not  be  properly  placed  in  any  of  the 
preceding  seven. 

The  construction  of  these  seven  types,  upon 
which  I  am  about  to  embark,  composes  the 
science  of  Cheirognomy.  Firstly,  however,  I 
will  draw  your  attention  to  a  few  general  indi- 
cations with  regard  to  the  hand  considered  as 
a  whole. 

If  the  palm  of  the  hand  is  narrow  and  skinny, 
it  denotes  always  timidity,  a  feeble  mind,  and 
want  of  moral  and  intellectual  force.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  too  thick  and  big  and  strong, 
it  denotes  a  low  intelligence,  and  a  tendency  to 
brutality.  A  hollow,  deep  palm  always  signifies 
misery,  ill-luck,  and  failures  in  life. 

Fingers  are  divided  into  two  great  classes : 
these  are,  fingers  which  are  smooth,  i.e.,  whose 
joints  are  not  prominent ;  and  fingers  which 
are  knotty,  i.e.,  whose  joints  stand  out  and  are 
clearly  visible.  These  latter,  again,  are  subdi- 
vided into  fingers  with  one  joint  only  prominent, 
and  those  with  both. 


gO  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

Fingers  which  are  smooth  always  denote  a 
tendency  to  act  upon  instinct,  upon  impube, 
upon  intuition,  rather  than  by  reason,  cal- 
culation, or  deduction.  If  your  fingers  are 
smooth,  you  are  highly  endowed  with  more 
natural  tact  and  grace  than  your  knotty-fin- 
gered fellows. 

Fingers  which  are  knotty  denote  always  a 
tendency  to  order  and  arrangement.  If  your 
fingers  are  such,  you  will  be  gifted  with  good 
taste,  which  is  born  of  reason,  rather  than 
with  natural  tact,  which  is  instinctive.  If  the 
upper  joint  (A  in  Plate  II.)  is  developed,  it  de- 
notes a  well-ordered  mind,  a  neat,  administra- 
tive disposition,  and  reason  in  the  ideas.  If  the 
loiver  joint  (B  in  Plate  II.)  is  developed,  this 
order  and  reason  applies  itself  to  things  mate- 
rial rather  than  to  things  mental  and  psycho- 
logical. The  lower  joint,  therefore,  is  termed 
the  joint  of  material  order ;  the  upper  one  is 
termed  the  joint  of  philosophy.  The  material 
and  worldly  mind  is  denoted  by  a  development 
of  the  lower,  whilst  the  philosophic  mind  is 
denoted  by  a  development  of  the  upper. 

Both  joints  developed  indicate  the  most 
pronounced  instincts  of  order  and  philosophy. 
Such  hands  denote  science,  analysis,  and  a 


D 


Plate  II.  —  THE  THUMB,    THE  JOINTS,    AND    THE 
LINES  IN   THE  HAND. 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  53 

strong  love  of  and  search  after  abstract  and 
absolute  truth. 

Art  is  the  domain  of  smooth,  science  is  the 
domain  of  knotty  fingers.  These  facts  must  be 
clearly  laid  hold  of  at  the  outset,  for  they  are 
the  very  corner-stones  of  cheirognomy.  A 
jointed  hand  can  never  become  smooth,  but 
with  age  and  experience  a  smooth  hand  may 
become  knotty.  This  change  takes  place  when 
our  minds  have  become  more  sceptic,  more  rea- 
sonable, and  more  mechanical  than  they  were 
when  the  illusions  of  youth  tinged  all  things 
with  the  roseate  tints  of  poetry  and  of  inspira- 
tion. 

A  hand  i%  either  long  or  short  by  comparison 
with  its  fellows,  and  the  indications  afforded  by 
these  peculiarities  are  of  synthesis  or  of  analy- 
sis. To  explain  :  People  with  short  fingers  are 
quicker,  more  impulsive,  act  more  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment,  than  people  with  long  fingers  ; 
they  prefer  generalities  to  details,  jump  at  once 
to  conclusions,  and  are  quick  at  grasping  all 
the  bearings  of  a  subject  or  scheme.  Their 
judgment  is  quick,  and  their  action  is  prompt, 
making  up  their  minds  the  moment  a  subiect 
presents  itself  to  them.  If,  however,  the  fingers 
are  very  short,  it  results  in  cruelty  and  want 


54  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

of  tact.  Joints  will  assist  the  promptitude  of 
short  fingers,  for  the  calculation  of  the  joints 
will  combine  itself  with  the  quickness  of  the 
short  fingers. 

With  long  fingers,  on  the  contrary,  we  find 
a  love  of  detail,  an  instinct  of  minutiae,  and  a 
punctilious  carefulness,  which  amounts  some- 
times even  to  frivolity.  Such  persons  are  tidy 
as  to  their  appointments,  dignified,  easily  put 
out,  and  very  careful  about  trifles.  These  char- 
acteristics will  be  intensified  by  a  development 
of  the  upper  joint  in  the  fingers.  Such  people 
elaborate  detail  at  the  expense  of  the  mass,  are 
distrustful,  and  continually  seek  for  inner  mean- 
ings to  things.  M.  d'Arpentigny  himself  had 
fingers  of  this  description ;  and  the  result  was, 
that  his  book  on  the  hand  is  filled  with  an  elab- 
orate mass  of  details  and  side-issues,  which  is 
most  distracting  to  the  reader,  unless  his  fin- 
gers harmonize  with  those  of  the  author.  Such 
fingers  often  also  betray  cowardice,  deceit,  and 
affectation. 

Thus,  therefore,  large-handed  people  love 
details,  and  like  things  to  be  small  and  exqui- 
sitely finished  and  perfect,  whilst  small-handed 
people  love  masses,  and  like  things  to  be  large 
and  grandiose.  Minute  workers  always  have 


ON   THE  SFIAPES  OF  HANDS.  55 

large  hands,  whereas  the  constructors  of  colos- 
sal works  always  have  small  hands.  Thus, 
small-handed  people  always  write  large,  whilst 
large-handed  people  always  write  small. 

It  is  only  the  medium  hand  that  can  appre- 
ciate, at  the  same  time,  the  mass  and  the  details 
of  a  subject. 

Thick  ringers,  especially  at  their  bases,  invari- 
ably denote  luxury,  and,  when  highly  developed, 
sensuality.  Twisted  and  malformed  ringers, 
with  short  nails,  denote  cruelty,  tyranny,  and  a 
worrying,  teasing  disposition.  If  a  hand  is  stiff 
and  hard,  opening  with  difficulty  to  its  fullest 
extent,  it  betrays  stubbornness  of  character, 
and  avarice.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  ringers, 
being  very  supple,  have  a  tendency  to  turn  back, 
they  denote,  as  a  rule,  cleverness  and  inquisi- 
tiveness,  nearly  always  generosity,  ending  in 
extravagance. 

If  the  fingers  fit  close  together,  it  is  a  sign  of 
avarice ;  if  they  are  very  smooth  and  transpa- 
rent, they  betray  indiscretion  and  loquacity.  If 
very  twisted,  so  as  to  show  considerable  chinks 
between  them,  it  is  always  a  sign  of  that  excess 
of  sympathy,  which  is  known  to  the  vulgar  as 
curiosity. 

In  examining  the  hand,  observe  particularly 


56  PRACTICAL   CIIEIROSOPIIY. 

whether  or  no  the  tips  of  the  fingers  are  fur- 
nished with  little  fleshy  protuberances,  which 
stand  out  from  the  curved  surfaces  of  the  fin- 
ger-tips. These,  when  present,  always  denote 
sensitiveness,  which  is  more  or  less  keen  as  the 
protuberance  is  more  or  less  developed. 

Beyond  this,  the  tips  of  the  fingers  present 
four  principal  appearances.  They  are  either 
spatulate  (i.e.,  clubbed  and  broad),  square,  conic 
(or  rounded  like  a  thimble),  or  pointed.  We 
shall  consider  the  indications  afforded  by  these 
formations,  at  greater  length,  when  discussing 
the  leading  types  of  hands ;  shortly,  their  sig- 
nifications are  as  follows  :  — 

If  your  fingers  are  broad  —  i.e.,  spatulate  — 
at  the  tips,  your  main  desire  in  life  will  be  for 
action,  activity,  movement,  locomotion,  and 
manual  exercises  ;  you  will  love  things  from  the 
utilitarian  point  of  view ;  you  will  have  tastes 
for  agriculture,  commerce,  mechanics,  indus- 
tries, and  the  applied  sciences.  Bearing  in 
mind  what  has  been  said  concerning  the  joints, 
if  your  spatulate  fingers  are  smooth,  you  will  do 
these  things  spontaneously;  if  knotty,  reason- 
ably and  by  calculation. 

If  your  finger-tips  are  square,  your  prevailing 
characteristics  will  be  symmetry  and  exactitude 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  $? 

of  habit  and  thought.  You  will  have  tastes  for 
philosophy,  languages,  and  logic ;  in  literature, 
you  will  require  analysis  and  arrangement. 
You  will  be  imbued  with  respect  for  established 
authority,  and  with  a  love  of  theories,  of  rheto- 
ric, and  of  order  and  tidiness :  but,  unless  your 
joints  be  developed,  this  love  of  tidiness  will  go 
no  further ;  i.e.,  it  will  not  be  practical.  Both 
joints  highly  developed  give  one  the  most 
advanced  passion  for  symmetry,  regularity,  and 
discipline.  Square-fingered  people  are  always 
musical :  brilliant  executants  are  always  spatu- 
late-fingered,  but  the  most  thorough  musicians 
have  always  square  hands.  Singers,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  always  conic  or  pointed 
fingers. 

With  conic  fingers,  all  your  instincts  will  be 
artistic,  your  whole  soul  will  be  given  over  to  a 
love  of  the  beautiful,  and  you  are  certain  to  be 
enthusiastic  and  romantic.  Joints  give  a  cer- 
tain moral  force  to  such  fingers  as  these,  as  also 
does  a  good-sized  thumb. 

If  your  fingers  are  pointed,  —  i.e.,  long  and 
finely  drawn  out,  —  yours  will  be  exclusively  the 
domain  of  idealism,  of  religious  fervor,  and  of 
indifference  to  worldly  interests. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  an  exaggera- 


58  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

tion  of  any  of  these  formations  indicates  an 
excess,  a  diseased  condition  of  the  instincts  indi- 
cated by  the  formation.  Thus,  an  exaggerated 
pointedness  will  indicate  excessive  romanticism, 
folly,  and  imagination,  which  develops  into  the 
wildest  eccentricity  and  into  deceit. 

The  color  of  the  hands  varies  so  continually 
with  the  temperature,  that  it  is  practically  im- 
possible to  lay  down  definite  readings  for  it. 
But  this  one  indication  is  infallible  :  if  the  hands 
are  always  white,  never  or  hardly  ever  changing 
color,  it  is  a  sure  sign  of  egoism,  of  selfish- 
ness, and  of  a  want  of  real  sympathy  with  the 
troubles  of  others. 

As  in  physiology,  so  in  Cheirosophy,  the 
thumb  is  by  far  the  most  important  part  of  the 
hand.  It  is  divided  into  three  parts  :  the  root, 
or  Mount  of  Venus ;  the  second  phalanx  (C  in 
Plate  II.),  which  is  that  of  logic  ;  and  the  first 
(D  in  Plate  II.),  which  is  that  of  will.  The 
second  phalanx  indicates  our  greater  or  less 
amount  of  perception,  judgment,  and  reasoning 
power ;  the  first,  by  its  greater  or  less  develop- 
ment, indicates  the  strength  of  our  will,  our 
decision,  and  our  capacity  for  taking  the  initia- 
tive. If  the  nailed  phalanx  is  short,  weak,  and 


ON   THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  59 

thin,  it  betrays  feebleness  of  will,  want  of  decis- 
ion, and  of  promptitude  in  action,  with  want 
of  self-reliance  and  constancy.  With  such  a 
phalanx  of  will,  if  the  lower  phalanx  (of  logic) 
is  long  and  strong,  you  will  be  able  to  give  ex- 
cellent reasons  for  your  lack  of  decision.  Your 
common-sense  will  be  excellent,  but  you  will  not 
have  sufficient  strength  of  will-power  to  put 
your  common-sense  into  practice,  and  act  boldly 
on  the  suggestions  of  your  better  judgment. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  the  phalanx  of  will  be 
long,  and  that  of  logic  be  short,  you  will  be 
quick,  active,  impulsive,  and  tenacious  of  opin- 
ions and  purpose ;  but,  lacking  the  logic  to  guide 
your  will  aright,  you  will  run  into  the  danger 
of  unreasoning  obstinacy. 

If  the  phalanx  of  will  is  not  long,  but  broad, 
it  indicates  always  obstinacy ;  and  if  this  breadth 
is  excessive,  it  betrays  passion,  furious  impulse, 
tyranny,  brutality,  and  even  a  tendency  to 
murder. 

When  the  upper  joint  of  the  thumb  turns 
back,  it  is  always  a  sign  of  extravagance,  of  lux- 
ury, and  of  generosity  carried  to  an  extreme.  It 
will  therefore  be  understood,  as  a  generality, 
that  a  large  or  long  thumb  indicates  strength  of 
character,  and  individuality,  whilst  a  small  or 


60  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

short  thumb  indicates  the  reverse.  I  have  dis- 
cussed all  the  minutiae  of  the  combinations  of 
large  and  small  thumbs,  with  other  formations 
of  the  hand,  in  my  book,  "  A  Manual  of  Chei- 
rosophy." 

The  consistency  of  hands  is  a  great  point 
to  be  noticed  ;  indicating,  as  it  does,  the  taste 
which  the  subject  possesses  for  physical  exer- 
tion. Soft  hands  are  the  indications  of  a  quiet 
temperament,  inclining  to  laziness  and  even  to 
lethargy;  whilst  hard  hands  denote  always  an 
imperious  desire  for  action,  and  a  love  of  hard 
physical  exercise  or  manual  labor.  These  dif- 
ferences show  themselves  in  the  way  various 
subjects  put  their  tendencies  into  action.  Thus 
an  artist  with  hard  hands  will  depict  scenes  of 
action,  of  real  life,  of  movement,  rather  than  the 
ideal,  imaginative  pictures  of  the  soft-handed 
artist.  The  soft  spatulate  hand  will  love  the 
spectacle  of  action,  and  appreciate  physical  ac- 
tivity in  others,  rather  than  practise  it  himself. 

Soft-handed  subjects  are  always  greedy  of  the 
marvellous,  and  fond  of  occult  sciences,  from 
their  love  of  contemplation  :  whereas  very  hard 
hands  are  always  superstitious,  by  reason  of 
their  want  of  reflection  to  make  them  other- 
wise. Soft  hands  are  more  capable  of  tender- 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  6l 

ness  and  affection  than  of  true  love,  but  hard 
hands  are  more  capable  of  lasting  affection  than 
of  tenderness  or  passion. 

Smoothness  and  a  gentle  firmness  of  the 
hands  always  indicate  delicacy  of  mind,  whilst 
dryness  and  roughness  always  denote  rudeness 
and  insensibility  of  mind.  A  wrinkled  hand,  if 
it  is  soft,  denotes  sensitiveness  and  uprightness, 
but  if  it  is  hard  it  betrays  pugnacity  and  irrita- 
bility. 

The  gestures  of  the  hand  speak  a  language  of 
their  own,  which  I  have  made  the  subject  of  a 
complete  section  in  my  "  Manual  of  Cheiroso- 
phy."  To  keep  the  hands  always  closed,  de- 
notes secretiveness,  and  often  untruth.  If  you 
think  a  man  is  telling  you  a  lie,  look  at  his 
hands ;  he  cannot  lie  with  his  hands  open. 
The  same  remark  applies  when  the  hands  are 
kept  studiously  quiet  and  impassive  :  this  also 
denotes  vanity  and  self-consciousness. 

But  little  can  be  learned  from  the  nails,  but  a 
few  of  their  aspects  have  very  marked  and 
infallible  significations.  Nails  which  are  short 
and  broad  indicate  a  spirit  of  criticism  and  pug- 
nacity, a  love  of  domination  and  control,  and  a 
tendency  to  fidgetiness  and  a  meddlesome  dis- 


62  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

position.  Women  with  short  nails  are  gener- 
ally inclined  to  be  termagants.  The  good 
points  of  short  nails  are,  of  course,  quickness 
of  intellect,  and  perspicuity;  in  a  good  hand 
they  will  merely  denote  a  spirit  of  sarcasm 
and  of  good-humored  irony. 

Long,  curved  nails  betray  cruelty  of  disposi- 
tion. The  finer  and  more  delicate  the  shape  of 
the  nails,  the  finer  and  more  delicate  the  mind 
indicated  by  them.  The  habit  of  biting  the 
nails,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark,  results 
from  nervousness  and  a  self-worrying  disposition. 
These  are  the  main  indications  which  may  be 
read  in  a  moment  from  a  casual  glance  at  the 
hands.  We  will  now  pass  shortly  in  review 
the  seven  leading  types  of  hands. 

The  seven  types  of  hands  are  the  elementary, 
the  spatulate,  the  conic,  the  square,  the  knotty, 
and  the  pointed,  with  a  seventh  hybrid  type 
which  I  have  called  the  mixed  hand.  The  Ele- 
mentary  hand  (Plate  III.)  is  so  called  from  its 
belonging  exclusively  to  the  lowest  grade  of 
human  intelligence,  and  argues  merely  sufficient 
intellect  for  the  support  of  human  life.  The 
fingers  are  short,  and  thick,  and  stiff;  the  thumb 
is  short,  and  slightly  turned  back ;  the  palm  is 


Plate  HI. -THE  ELEMENTARY  HAND. 
Denoting  the  lowest  grade  of  intelligence,  s2oth, 

dulness,  and  coarseness. 
(From  the  cast  of  an  Esquimau  hand.) 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  65 

large  and  thick  and  hard,  and,  as  a  rule,  longer 
than  the  fingers,  as  is  the  case  in  an  infant's 
hand. 

Such  hands  are  very  rare  indeed  in  England 
or  America,  and,  indeed,  are  hardly  to  be  met 
with  at  all  in  the  pure  state  in  latitudes  as  south- 
ern, and  in  climates  as  clement,  as  ours.  They 
betoken  a  crass  and  sluggish  intelligence.  They 
have  no  imaginations  or  passions  beyond  the 
merely  brutish  ones,  no  instincts  of  cultivation, 
and  hardly  the  instincts  of  human  society, 
Though,  as  I  have  said,  the  pure  elementary 
type  does  not  exist  among  us,  we  often  find 
hands  that  come  within  measurable  distance  of 
it,  and  then  we  find  a  very  distinguishable  tend- 
ency to  the  characteristics  which  I  have  named. 

The  next  type,  the  Spatulate  (Plate  IV.),  or 
Active  hand,  is  very  much  more  common  among 
us.  This  hand  has  the  tips  of  its  fingers  slight- 
ly flattened  out  like  the  spatula  with  which  the 
chemist  mixes  his  drugs,  and  from  this  it  de- 
rives its  name.  The  thumb  is  rather  large,  and 
the  whole  hand  has  a  tendency  to  hardness. 
The  main  characteristics  of  the  type  are  action, 
movement,  energy.  Such  subjects  are  resolute, 
self-confident,  active,  rather  than  delicate-mind- 
ed ;  constant  and  faithful,  but  unromantic  in 


66  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

love.  If  such  a  subject  has  a  small  thumb, 
much  of  his  energy  and  activity  will  be  mis- 
directed or  aimless,  though  a  long  phalanx  of 
logic  will  go  far  towards  remedying  this  defect. 
Smooth  fingers  will  give  him  elegance  and  spon- 
taneity in  his  active  pursuits,  and  inspiration  in 
the  direction  of  his  exertions.  Spatulate  sub- 
jects make  the  best  colonists,  as  they  only  look 
at  the  useful  side  of  things,  attaching  themselves 
to  countries  only  for  the  useful  things  they  de- 
rive from  them.  They  are  very  slightly  sensual, 
and  like  travelling  about  and  shifting  for  them- 
selves. They  like  colossal  architecture  rather 
than  beauty  of  design,  wealth  rather  than  luxury, 
quantity  rather  than  quality.  People  talk  a  good 
deal  of  nonsense  about  a  fine  hand  as  an  indica- 
tion of  ancient  race.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
pure  descendants  of  the  old  fighting  Saxon  nobil- 
ity are  always  distinguishable  by  their  spatulate 
hands.  In  religion,  spatulate-handed  subjects 
are  conventional  above  all  things,  Protestants 
rather  than  Catholics.  It  is  thus  that  these 
hands  are  in  a  majority  in  Northern  latitudes ; 
whereas  in  Southern  climes,  where  the  atmos- 
phere produces  a  more  romantic  turn  of  mind, 
the  Catholic  religion,  and  pointed  or  conical 
hands,  have  the  numerical  advantage.  Promi- 


Plate  IV.—  THE  SPATULATE  HAND. 

Denoting  action,  movement,  energy,  self-reliance, 
and  locomotion. 

(The  hand  of  the  "  great"  Duke  of  Wellington.) 


Otf  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  69 

nent  joints  give  an  intense  love  of  science  to 
these  hands,  and  make  them  expert  in  all 
mechanical  or  applied  sciences.  Such  men  are 
the  best  engravers,  and  the  readiest  inventors 
in  mechanical  arts  and  sciences.  Softness,  of 
course,  as  I  have  said,  greatly  modifies  the 
active  qualities  of  the  type. 

Next  to  this,  and  by  way  of  contrast,  we  have 
the  Conic,  or  Artistic  hand  (Plate  V.).  Of  this 
hand  the  fingers  are  always  slightly  broad  at 
the  lower  phalanges,  diminishing  gently  to  the 
tips,  which  are  conic  or  rounded.  The  joints 
are  not  prominent,  the  thumb  is  generally  small, 
and  the  palm  fairly  developed.  If  your  hand 
presents  these  peculiarities  of  formation,  you 
are  ruled  by' impulse  and  instinct,  rather  than 
by  reason  or  calculation ;  you  are  attracted  by 
the  beautiful,  rather  than  by  the  useful,  aspects 
of  life  and  matter ;  you  are  attracted  by  ease, 
novelty,  and  liberty.  Enthusiastic  and  impul- 
sive, rather  than  forcible  or  determined,  you 
are  at  heart  a  pure  Bohemian,  and  your  imagina- 
tion is  as  warm  as  your  heart  is  cold  ! 

If  the  formations  of  your  type  are  still  more 
accentuated,  that  is,  if  the  palm  is  larger,  the 
fingers  more  drawn  out,  the*  thumb  still  smaller, 
you  are  still  more  the  slave  of  your  passions 


70  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

and  your  impulses.  Your  enthusiasm  is  higher, 
your  love  warmer  and  shallower ;  you  are  gen- 
erous to  a  fault,  painfully  sensitive,  and  easily 
moved.  With  such  a  hand,  you  are  right  to 
strew  the  pathway  of  your  life  with  roses ;  but 
you  must  not  forget  that  when  the  petals  have 
fallen  from  the  wreath  of  roses,  it  becomes  a 
crown  of  thorns. 

Unfortunately,  if  the  thumb  is  very  weak, 
and  other  bad  signs,  which  I  shall  presently 
expound,  appear  in  the  hand,  you  will  often 
find  in  such  subjects  only  the  bad  qualities  of 
the  type,  —  sensuality,  laziness,  egotism,  eccen- 
tricity, dissipation,  and  deceit ;  but  a  hand  must 
be  very  bad  to  show  all  this.  The  main  char- 
acteristics, the  guiding  principles,  of  the  type 
are,  love  of  beauty  and  the  beautiful,  preference 
of  the  ideal  over  the  real,  intuition,  impulse,  and 
selfishness. 

The  next  type  is  that  of  the  Square,  or  Useful 
hand  (Plate  VI.).  This  hand  is  generally  large, 
rather  than  small;  the  palm  broad;  the  lower 
joint,  that  of  material  order,  developed ;  the 
tips  of  the  fingers  square,  i.e.,  neither  pointed 
nor  spread  out ;  the  thumb  rather  large ;  the 
palm  thick,  hollow,- and  rather  firm. 

The   leading   instincts   on  which   this   hand 


Plate  V.  —  THE   CONIC  HAND. 

Denoting  art,  brilliancy,  love  of  beauty,  enthusiasm, 

and  generosity. 
(The  hand  of  Sir  Frederick  Leighton.  P.R.A.) 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  73 

founds  its  characteristics  are  perseverance,  fore- 
sight, order,  and  regularity.  To  these  hands, 
the  useful  is  far  preferable  to  the  beautiful. 
Their  great  passions  are  for  organization,  ar- 
rangement, classification,  regularity  of  form  and 
outline,  and  the  acceptation  of  things  pre- 
scribed and  understood  as  customary.  They 
are  great  disciplinarians,  and  are  strongly  im- 
bued with  a  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  ; 
they  prefer  privileges  to  complete  liberty,  and 
have  a  passion  for  experiences  of  all  kinds. 

If  your  hands  are  of  this  type,  you  are  a 
slave  to  arrangement ;  you  have  a  place  for 
every  thing,  and  every  thing  is  in  its  place. 
Unless  your  joints  are  well  developed,  it  is 
quite  possible  that  your  drawers  and  cupboards 
may  be  untidy ;  but  you  will  be  outwardly  in 
perfect  order,  and,  amid  the  chaos  of  your  pos- 
sessions, you  will  always  know  where  to  find 
every  thing,  for  memory  is  one  of  the  most 
precious  attributes  of  the  type.  You  will  be 
handy  with  your  fingers,  tidy  in  person,  and 
always  most  particular  about  your  general 
arrangements.  You  are  suspicious,  and  quietly 
cunning.  Vigilant,  and  a  complete  master  of 
intrigue,  you  are  a  flatterer,  and  you  like  to  be 
flattered  ;  and  you  are  also  quietly  and  unosten- 
tatiously ambitious.  ( 


74  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

If  the  joint  of  order  is  absent,  yours  is  a 
most  enviable  mind ;  for  you  have  the  strongest 
aptitude  for  metaphysical  and  abstract  sciences, 
with  a  natural  capacity  for  checking  your  tend- 
ency to  enthusiasm.  This  is  the  cleverest 
hand  that  exists.  Heaven  help  you  if  with  a 
square  hand  both  your  joints  are  developed ! 
you  will  be  the  most  aggressively  methodical 
creature  that  ever  existed,  living  by  rote  and 
rule,  and  doing  every  thing  by  pre-arranged 
order.  Good  sense  and  reasonable  egoism  are 
the  main  features  of  th*e  type. 

The  next  is  the  Knotty  or  Philosophic  type 
of  hand  (Plate  VII.) :  its  appearance  is  most  dis- 
tinctive. The  palm  is  large  and  elastic ;  both 
joints  are  highly  developed,  especially  the  upper 
one,  which,  with  the  half-conic,  half-square  for- 
mation of  the  tips,  gives  a  curious  clubbed  oval 
appearance  to  the  fingers.  The  thumb  is  large, 
having  its  two  phalanges  of  equal  length. 

The  great  characteristics  of  this  hand  are 
analysis,  meditation,  philosophy,  and  deduction  ; 
and  these  continually  lead  to  deism  and  de- 
mocracy. Their  main  and  vital  instinct  is, 
however,  a  love  of  and  search  after  abstract  and 
absolute  truth.  The  joints  give  to  the  hand 
calculation,  method,  and  deduction.  The  quasi- 


wtf 


Plate  VI. -THE  SQUARE  HAND. 

Denoting  order,  arrangement,  method,  symmetry 
of  form,  and  outline,  and  discipline. 

(The  hand  of  the  author.) 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  ?J 

conic  formation  of  the  finger-tips  give  it  the 
instincts  of  poetry  and  real  beauty,  and  the 
thumb  gives  it  perseverance.  Such  subjects 
pay  more  attention  to  the  significance  of  things 
than  to  their  appearances ;  their  literature, 
therefore,  is  notable  for  its  clearness  and  util- 
ity, rather  than  for  its  form  or  literary  style. 
They  require  to  account  for  every  thing.  They 
require  reason  in  every  thing.  They  form  their 
own  opinions  on  all  subjects,  without  reference 
to  those  of  other  people,  and  form  them  after 
the  most  careful  analysis  and  consideration  of 
the  questions  involved. 

Subjects  of  the  philosophic  type  are  essen- 
tially sceptical  in  religion,  for  they  refuse  to  look 
at  the  emotional  side  of  any  thing.  They  are 
therefore  great  advocates  of  social  and  religious 
freedom,  being  moderate  in  all  their  pleasures. 
The  smaller  the  philosophic  hand,  the  keener 
its  search  after  the  attainment  of  truth ;  the 
larger  it  is,  the  more  analytical  it  becomes. 

The  last  type,  the  Pointed  or  Psychic  hand 
(Plate  VIIL),  is  the  most  beautiful  and  delicate, 
but,  alas !  the  most  ideal  and  useless  of  all. 
Small  and  delicate,  with  a  thin  palm,  and  fine, 
long  and  pointed  fingers,  its  joints  are  barely 
visible,  and  it  has  a  pretty  little  thumb.  The 
only  thing  to  regret  about  it  is  its  rarity. 


78  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

To  these  subjects  belongs  the  domain  of  the 
beautiful  ideal.  They  have  all  the  artistic  in- 
stinct of  their  conic-handed  fellows,  with  none 
of  their  bad  points.  They  are  guided  entirely 
by  their  idealism,  their  impulse,  and  their  in- 
stinct of  abstract  right.  They  never  command, 
for  they  are  above  any  such  earthly  aggrandize- 
ment, or  material  interests  of  any  kind ;  but 
they  always  inspire  respect,  if  only  on  account 
of  the  beauty  of  their  brilliant  incomprehensi- 
bility. In  politics  and  religion,  they  acknowl- 
edge no  leadership,  being  guided  only  by  their 
innate  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Theirs  is  the 
talent  of  inspired  lyric  poetry,  and  they  possess, 
with  this  faculty,  the  more  important  one  of 
communicating  their  enthusiasm  to  others.  It 
is  this  that  makes  them  such  splendid  orators 
and  preachers.  These  are  the  men  who  have  a 
real  call  to  the  ministry.  I  once  heard  the  late 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  say,  that  when  God  calls 
a  man  to  preach,  he  generally  calls  a  congrega- 
tion to  listen  to  him ;  when  this  happens,  you 
may  expect  to  see  pointed  fingers.  Other  kinds 
of  men  often  say  they  have  heard  a  call :  maybe 
they  have,  but  it  wasn't  for  them,  it  was  for 
somebody  else  !  A  joint  will  sometimes  appear 
in  a  hand  of  this  kind ;  this  is  fatal.  Such  a 


Plate  VII.— THE  KNOTTY  HAND. 

Denoting  philosophy,  analysis,  logic,  deduction,  science, 
research,  and  truth. 

(The  hand  of  Sir  Richard  Owen,  F.R.S.,  K.C.B.) 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  8 1 

subject  will  be  prone  to  rush  from  one  extreme 
to  another ;  he  will  be  credulous,  greedy  of  the 
marvellous,  discontented,  and  eccentric.  Psy- 
chic-handed people  should  never  go  beyond  their 
own  intuitions,  for  they  have  not  the  gifts  of 
reason  and  of  analysis.  Sometimes,  however, 
both  joints  will  appear  in  such  a  hand;  this  will 
give  doubt,  fear,  dejection,  and  revolutionary 
ideas  (but  not  practice).  The  only  redeeming 
point  of  such  a  hand  is  its  capacity  for  inven- 
tion, which  is  not,  however,  supported  by  the 
necessary  practical  talents. 

Finally,  I  must  call  your  attention  to  the 
hybrid  type,  known  as  the  Mixed  hand  ;  that 
is  to  say,  hands  which  being,  as  it  were,  inter- 
mediate, so  nearly  resemble  more  than  one  type, 
as  to  admit  the  possibility  of  their  being  mis- 
taken for  either.  Thus  a  conic  hand  may  be 
nearly  pointed,  a  square  nearly  spatulate,  a 
spatulate  nearly  philosophic,  and  so  on.  In 
such  cases  the  peculiarities  of  both  types  are 
present  in  the  character,  and  it  is  the  task  of 
the  cheirosophist  so  to  combine  them  as  to  give 
a  true  analysis  of  the  subject  under  examina- 
tion. Such  subjects  may  generally  be  described 
as  "jacks  of  all  trades,  and  masters  of  none;" 
they  attain  to  skill  in  a  variety  of  pursuits,  but 


82  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

seldom  to  excellence  in  any  one.  They  are  gen- 
erally amusing,  but  seldom  instructive.  Their 
great  advantage  is  their  adaptability  and  readi- 
ness to  suit  themselves  to  any  company  in 
which  they  may  find  themselves ;  but  these 
advantages  are  generally  combined  with  lack  of 
sincerity,  application,  or  perseverance. 

This  is  the  Science  of  Cheirognomy.  From 
what  I  have  said,  you  ought  now  to  be  able  to 
tell,  by  a  rapid  glance  at  the  hands,  the  char- 
acter of  any  one  into  whose  company  you  are 
thrown.  In  my  "Manual  of  Cheirosophy,"  I 
have  devoted  a  special  section  to  the  minutiae 
of  Cheirognomy,  as  applied  to  the  hands  of  the 
softer  sex.  It  is,  however,  only  necessary  for 
me  to  say  here  that  the  same  remarks  apply  to 
women  as  to  men,  save  that  the  qualities  of 
the  more  robust  types  are  less,  and  those  of  the 
gentler  types  are  more,  developed  among  them 
than  among  us.  It  should  also  be  remarked, 
that  the  motives  of  the  action  of  women  must 
be  sought  for  in  instinct,  impulse,  and  intuition, 
rather  than  in  calculation  or  reason.  It  is,  I 
think,  very  generally  admitted,  that  the  instinct 
of  a  woman  is  far  superior  to  any  amount  of 
reason,  and  this  is  why  they  usually  dispense 


Plate  VIH.—  THE  POINTED   HAND. 

Denoting  poetry,  enthusiasm,  idealism,  abstract  right, 
impulse,  and  high  ideals. 

(The  hand  of  "  Violet  Fane,"  the  poetess.) 


ON  THE  SHAPES  OF  HANDS.  85 

with  the  latter  commodity.  A  ribald  friend  of 
mine  used  to  say  that  he  never  knew  but  one 
woman  who  could  understand  reason,  and  she 
wouldn't  listen  to  it.  It  will,  therefore,  strike 
the  observer  as  natural  that  smooth  fingers  are 
in  a  majority  among  women,  rather  than  promi- 
nently jointed  ones. 

I  turn  now  to  a  branch  of  the  science  which, 
though  not  so  useful,  is  perhaps  even  more  inter- 
esting than  Cheirognomy.  I  mean,  to  Cheiro- 
mancy, whereby,  in  examining  the  mounts  and 
lines  of  the  palm,  the  past,  the  present,  and  even 
the  future,  may  be  explained  and  foretold. 


86  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 


PART   IV. 

CHEIROMANCY    OR    PALMISTRY. 

THERE  have  not  been  wanting  authorities 
who  have  claimed  for  cheiromancy,  or,  as 
it  used  to  be  called,  "  cheiroscopy,"  the  support 
of  Scripture,  basing  their  arguments  upon  that 
oft-cited  passage  of  the  Book  of  Job,  which  I 
nave  dissected  and  discussed  at  such  length  in 
"  A  Manual  of  Cheirosophy,"  4I  and  "  The  Sci- 
ence of  the  Hand."  The  passage  to  which  I 
refer  is  cited  in  error,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
now  that  the  science  of  cheirosophy  is  not 
even  remotely  alluded  to.  But  there  is  equally 
no  doubt  that  this  science  is  of  incomparable 
antiquity ;  and  Juvenal  tells  us,  that  in  his 
time,  — 

"  The  middle  sort,  who  have  not  much  to  spare, 
To  cheiromancer's  cheaper  art  repair, 
Who  clap  the  pretty  palm  to  make  the  lines  more  fair."  42 

The  works  of  Aristotle,  as  I  said  some  time 
ago,  are  full  of  references  to  the  science ;  and 

41  PP'  55-5s-        42  Satyra  vi.,  1.  581.     (Dryden's  translation.) 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  8/ 

it  is  interesting  to  know  that  one  of  the  first 
block  books  ever  produced  by  the  printing-press 
(before  the  introduction  of  movable  types)  was 
"Die  Kunst  Ciromantia,"  written  by  Johann 
Hartlieb  in  1448,  and  published  at  Augsburg 
in  1495. 

.  The  absolute  origin  of  the  art,  panoplied,  as 
Mr.  Edgar  Saltus  would  say,  "in  the  dim  mag- 
nificence of  myth,"  was  probably  Oriental.  Mr. 
Herbert  Giles,  Her  Majesty's  consul  at  Shanghai, 
than  whom  probably  no  greater  authority  on 
Chinese  culture  exists,  tells  me  that  the  science 
was  practised  in  China  many  centuries  before 
Christ.  Philip  Baldoeus  alludes  to  its  antiquity 
in  India,  in  the  seventeenth  century;43  and  we 
know  that  Apollonius  of  Tyana  44  studied  magic 
in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  among  the  Brahmins 
in  that  country.  Whatever  its  antiquity,  the 
more  one  studies  it,  the  more  one  is  amazed  by 
the  truths  —  the  inexplicable  truths  —  which  it 
teaches  us. 

It  is  strenuously  objected  to  this  science, 
that  it  professes  to  predict  with  certainty 
future  events.  Now,  this  is  what  it  does  not  do  ; 

43  Wahrhiiftige  ausfiirliche  Beschreibung  der  ost-indischen   Kiist- 
en  Malabar,  etc.  (Amsterdam,  1672),  cap.  v.  p.  513. 

44  William  Godwin:  Lives  of  the  Necromancers  (London,  183.1), 
p.  158. 


88  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

but  it  teaches  men  to  observe  the  great  laws 
of  Cause  and  Effect  so  closely  as  to  be  able 
to  predict  the  almost  inevitable  results  of  exist- 
ing circumstances.  Cheirosophy  aims  at  ascer- 
taining the  established  conjunctions,  which  in 
their  turn  establish  the  order  of  the  universe. 

They  say  it  is  impossible  to  predict  a  future 
malady  or  death.  What  is  more  reasonable  to 
believe  than  that,  of  a  future  malady,  the  germ 
already  lurks  in  the  system,  which  must  ulti- 
mately supervene,  and  may  prove  fatal  ?  Such 
a  germ  as  this  must  affect  the  universal  nerve- 
fluid,  the  vital  principle  ;  and  what  is  more 
likely  than  that  this  affection  should  be  visible 
at  the  point  where  the  nerves  are  most  numer- 
ous and  apparent,  and  that  is  —  in  the  palm  of 
the  hand  ? 

Then,  so  surely  as  the  future  exists  already 
for  us,  let  us  minutely  examine  the  present, 
which  is  forming  and  modifying  and  developing 
that  future.  Our  thoughts  are  free,  as  Sir 
Richard  Owen  has  said,  to  soar  as  far  as  any  le- 
gitimate analogy  may  seem  to  guide  them  rightly 
across  the  boundless  ocean  of  unknown  truth ! 

Cheirosophy  is  not  fatalism.  It  never  says 
what  shall  be,  shall  be  :  it  merely  warns  us 
of  what  will  happen  if  we  pursue  the  course  we 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  89 

are  adopting.  If  we  neglect  the  warning,  as 
I  have  constantly  known  people  to  do,  turn- 
ing aside  with  a  lofty  smile,  we  have  only  our- 
selves to  blame  when  the  events,  which  we 
might  easily  have  averted  by  an  effort,  of  will, 
supervene  to  our  harm  and  annoyance.  It  is 
true,  that  certain  signs  have  been  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  such  as  the  indi- 
cations of  coming  accidents  and  sudden  death  ; 
and,  in  numberless  instances,  my  own  personal 
experiences  have  proved  the  correctness  of 
these  signs,  for  the  explanation  of  which  it  is 
impossible  to  hazard  any  reasonable  conjecture. 
These  facts,  of  which  I  will  shortly  give  you 
a  few  instances,  simply  exist  as  facts,  and  as 
suck  we  are  bound  to  accept  them. 

As  to  the  expounding  of  the  past,  I  would 
argue,  in  the  same  way,  that  great  events  prin- 
cipally affect  our  nerves,  and  this  affection  of 
the  nerves  produces  strange  and  infinitely  varied 
combinations  of  the  lines  in  the  palm.  If  trou- 
ble can  leave  its  marks  upon  the  face,  as  Byron 
says,  — 

"  The  intersected  lines  of  thought,  — 
Those  furrows  which  the  burning  share 
Of  sorrow  ploughs  untimely  there; 
Scars  of  the  lacerated  mind, 
Which  the  soul's  war  doth  leave  behind,"  — 


90  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

why  should  not  the  same  effect  be  produced 
upon  the  hands,  which  are  so  much  more  sensi- 
tive than  the  face  ? 

How  continually  one  is  told,  by  some  one 
who  imagines  he  has  discovered  a  brand-new 
argument,  that  the  lines  are  simply  the  result 
of  the  folding  of  the  hands!  The  evidence 
against  this  is  infinite.  Quain  has  told  us 4S 
that  the  lines  are  clearly  traced  even  before 
a  man  is  born ;  and  it  is  easy  to  verify  the  fact, 
that  the  hands  of  women,  and  of  men  who 
never  use  their  hands  in  active  exercises,  are 
always  covered  with  lines,  whereas  the  hands 
of  labourers  and  men  who  work  hard  with  them, 
are  nearly  always  almost  destitute  of  lines  at 
all.  It  is  activity  of  brain,  and  not  of  body,  that 
causes  the  lines  to  appear ;  otherwise,  how  ac- 
count for  lines  between  the  joints  of  the  fin- 
gers, and  in  directions  in  which  no  folding 
could  ever,  by  any  possibility,  take  place  ? 

No  :  the  hands  fold,  it  is  true,  upon  some  of 
the  major  lines,  but  the  lines  are  not  caused  by 
the  folding.  However,  let  us  get  on.  Why 
seek  to  account  for  facts,  which,  being  existent, 
need  no  proof?  Let  us  accept  the  axiom  laid 
down  by  Herbert  Spencer,  by  Henry  Drum- 

45  Quain's  Anatomy,  vol.  ii.  p.  214. 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  9! 

mond,  and  by  a  host  of  the  finest  intellects  of 
the  day,  that  all  science  is  more  or  less  a  mys- 
tery.46 We  can  only  tabulate  facts,  and,  after 
letting  them  speak  for  themselves,  draw  our 
own  deductions.  I  have  advanced  all  the  data 
that  can  be  necessary,  in  the  introductory  argu- 
ments to  my  two  larger  works  upon  this  science. 
Now  I  propose  to  lay  before  you  what  actually 
is  the  case,  in  the  hope  that  you  will  not  refuse 
to  believe  acknowledged  truth,  as  did  the  hard- 
headed  scientists  of  even  so  late  as  the  end 
of  the  last  century,  who  denied  that  aerolites 
either  had  fallen  or  could  fall.  This  is  not  a 
superstition,  this  science  of  mine.  But,  if  it 
were,  superstition  will  only  come  to  an  end 
when  exact  science  —  if  such  exists  —  will  take 
the  trouble  to  examine  without  prejudice  the 
facts  it  has  hitherto  distinctly  denied  ;  that  is  to 
say,  when  it  will  approach  them  with  the  admis- 
sion that  things  are  not  necessarily  untrue  be- 
cause they  are  unexplained  ! 

It  is  necessary  to  say,  at  the  outset  of  the 
study  of  this  branch  of  the  science  of  chei- 
rosophy,  that  the  names  of  the  planets  applied 

46  Compare  these  passages:  Herbert  Spencer's  Study  of  Sociology 
(London,  1873),  chap,  iv.,  and  Henry  Drummond's  Natural  Law  in 
the  Spiritual  World  (London,  1884),  pp.  28  and  88. 


92  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

to  the  mounts  and  some  of  the  lines  of  the  palm 
are  not  astrological.  When  I  speak  of  the  mount 
of  Jupiter,  the  plain  of  Mars,  and  the  line  of 
Saturn,  I  do  not  mean  that  the  planets  have 
as  has  been  believed,  and,  I  regret  to  say,  writ- 
ten —  any  thing  to  do  with  those  parts  of  the 
hand.  The  explanation  of  these  terms  is,  that 
on  certain  parts  of  the  hand  are  found  the  indi- 
cations of  certain  temperaments,  which  we  have 
come  to  look  upon  as  peculiar  to  certain  deities 
of  the  heathen  mythology :  so  that  when  I  say 
the  mount  of  Venus,  I  mean  that  part  of  the 
hand  upon  which  are  found  the  indications  of 
love;  the  plain  of  Mars,  the  part  denoting 
audacity  and  warlike  instinct ;  the  line  of  Saturn 
indicates  fate,  and  so  on. 

The  five  digits  of  the  hand  have,  or  may  have, 
at  their  bases,  mounts  ;  i.e.,  little  protuberances 
of  muscle,  each  of  which  has  a  certain  signifi- 
cation, and  is  called  after  a  particular  planet 
(Plate  IX.).  They  are  as  follows  :  under  the 
thumb,  the  mount  of  Venus  (A) ;  under  the  first 
finger,  the  mount  of  Jupiter  (B)  ;  under  the 
second,  that  of  Saturn  (C) ;  under  the  third,  that 
of  Apollo,  or  the  Sun  (D) ;  under  the  fourth,  that 
of  Mercury  (E).  Below  this,  on  the  hand,  comes 
the  mount  of  Mars  (F)  ;  below  that,  again,  the 


Plate  IX.  -THE  MOUNTS   OF  THE  PALM. 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  95 

mount  of  the  Moon  (G) ;  and  in  the  centre  of 
the  hand,  the  plain  of  Mars  (H).  The  hand  is 
crossed  by  six  principal  lines  (Plate  II.)  :  the 
line  of  life,  which  surrounds  the  thumb  (a  a)  ; 
the  line  of  head,  which  starts  at  the  same  point, 
and  goes  to  the  mount  of  Mars  (b  b) ;  the  line  of 
heart,  almost  parallel  above  the  line  of  head 
(c  c)  ;  the  line  of  Saturn,  or  fortune,  which  goes 
from  the  wrist  to  the  mount  of  that  name  (dd] ; 
the  line  of  Apollo,  or  art,  which  goes  from  the 
plain  of  Mars  to  the  mount  of  Apollo  (e  e) ;  and 
the  line  of  liver,  or  health,  which  goes  from  the 
base  of  the  line  of  life  to  the  mount  of  Mars  or 
of  Mercury  (//).  To  these  are  added  two  in- 
ferior sets  of  lines  :  the  girdle  of  Venus,  which 
encircles  the  mounts  of  Saturn  and  of  Apollo 
(gg),  and  the  rascettes,  which  appear  at  the 
wrists  (Ji  Ji).  These  two  latter  are  not  invariably 
found  in  the  hands. 

Every  mount  betrays  certain  characteristics 
in  a  greater  or  less  state  of  development,  and 
the  mount  which  is  highest  in  a  hand  gives 
the  keynote  to  the  character  of  the  subject.  A 
hand  has  seldom  only  one  mount  developed,  and 
any  well-formed  mount  will  modify  the  signifi- 
cation of  the  principal  one.  Sometimes,  instead 
of  being  high  in  a  hand,  the  mount  is  covered 


96  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

•with  lines  (E,  Plate  IX.).  This  has  the  same 
effect  as  high  development,  and  makes  a  mount 
the  principal  one  in  the  hand.  All  the  mounts 
equally  developed  indicate  an  evenly  balanced 
mind,  whilst  no  mounts  at  all  betray  a  dull, 
negative  character.  A  mount  displaced  towards 
another,  instead  of  being  immediately  beneath 
the  finger,  takes  an  influence  from  that  mount 
towards  which  it  inclines.  If,  not  only  is  it 
absent,  but  a  hollow  occupies  its  place,  it  de- 
notes the  converse,  the  opposite,  of  the  qualities 
of  the  mount. 

The  lines  in  a  hand  should  be  clear,  red,  and 
apparently  marked,  not  ragged,  or  broken,  or 
indistinct.  Pale  lines  in  a  hand  indicate  a 
phlegmatic  disposition,  and,  in  a  man,  effemi- 
nacy. A  sister  line  following  the  course  of 
a  principal  line  (/  /  in  Plate  II.)  will  always 
strengthen  and  support  it.  A  tassel  at  the 
end  always  indicates  a  disorder  of  the  quality. 
Ascending  branches  (a  in  Plate  X.)  always  an- 
nounce a  favorable  issue  of  the  qualities  of  a 
line;  descending  (b,  Plate  X.),  the  reverse.  A 
chained  formation  indicates  obstacles  and  worries 
connected  therewith  (c  in  Plate  X.). 

Beneath  the  first  finger  we  find  the  mount  of 
Jupiter.  The  predominance  of  this  mount  in 


Plate  X.-THE  LINES  AND  MOUNTS. 


CHEIROMANCY  OK  PALMISTRY.  99 

a  hand  denotes  ambition,  honor,  gayety,  and 
religion.  It  also,  if  very  high,  denotes  love  of 
pomp  and  ceremony,  with  a  certain  amount  of 
pride ;  and  in  excess  the  mount  gives  tyranny, 
arrogance,  and  ostentation  ;  if  the  fingers  are 
pointed,  ostentation.  Complete  absence  of  the 
mount  betrays  idleness,  egoism,  want  of  dignity, 
and  even  vulgarity.  Confused  lines  on  the 
mount  indicate  a  continued  and  unsatisfied  am- 
bition. A  cross  on  the  mount  denotes  a  happy 
marriage  (a  in  Plate  XL).  If  a  star  be  there 
as  well  (b  in  Plate  XL),  the  marriage  is  also 
brilliant  and  ambitious.  A  spot  on  the  mount 
indicates  disgrace. 

The  next  mount  is  that  of  Saturn  (c,  Plate  IX.). 
When  this  mount  is  the  highest  in  the  hand, 
we  find  in  the  subject  caution,  prudence,  and  a 
fatality  either  for  good  or  evil.  Such  subjects 
are  sensitive  and  punctilious,  given  to  occult 
science,  to  incredulity,  melancholy,  and  timid- 
ity. They  love  solitude  and  a  quiet  life,  taking 
naturally  to  agriculture,  mineralogy,  and  kin- 
dred sciences.  Developed  to  excess,  the  mount 
denotes  a  profound  melancholy  and  morose  taci- 
turnity, remorse  and  morbid  imagination,  fear 
of  death,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  tendency 
to  suicide.  Absence  of  the  mount  denotes  an 


100  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

insignificant,  uneventful  disposition.  A  single 
line  on  the  mount  signifies  good  luck;  many 
(c,  Plate  XI.)  signify  bad  luck ;  and  a  spot  on 
the  mount  denotes  a  great  misfortune.  Dis- 
placed towards  Jupiter,  it  argues  a  great  good 
fortune. 

Under  the  third  finger  we  find  the  mount  of 
the  Sun.  When  it  is  prominent  in  a  hand,  it 
argues  a  powerful  love  of  art,  and  indicates  suc- 
cess, glory,  brilliancy,  good  fortune,  the  results 
of  genius  and  intelligence.  Such  subjects  are 
inventors  and  imitators,  prone  to  shortness  of 
temper,  pride,  eloquence,  and  a  tendency  to 
religion.  In  excess,  the  mount  indicates  love  of 
wealth,  extravagance,  luxury,  fatuity  and  envy, 
quick  temper  and  frivolity.  These  subjects  are 
also  boastful  and  conceited.  Absence  of  the 
mount  denotes  dulness,  and  a  complete  absence 
of  the  artistic  instinct.  A  single  line  on  the 
mount  denotes  fortune  and  glory ;  two  lines  (d 
in  Plate  XI.)  indicate  talent,  but  probable  failure 
in  life ;  and  a  confusion  of  lines  (e  in  Plate  X.) 
denotes  a  love  of  art  as  a  science,  and  an  ana- 
lytical disposition.  A  spot  on  the  mount  always 
announces  a  disgrace. 

At  the  outside  of  the  hand  is  the  mount  of 
Mercury.  Its  prominence  in  a  hand  denotes 


Plate  XL  — THE  LINES  AND  MOUNTS. 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  IO3 

science,  spirit,  eloquence,  commercial  capacity, 
speculation,  industry,  invention,  and  agility. 
Such  subjects  are  always  quick  and  clever  at 
occupations  which  require  skill,  and  they  are 
selfishly  good-natured;  i.e.,  they  are  good  to 
their  fellow-men  when  it  amuses  them  to  be 
so,  not  when  it  goes  against  their  inclinations. 
Excess  of  the  mount  is  very  bad,  denoting  theft, 
cunning,  deceit,  and  treachery.  Such  subjects 
are  always  charlatans,  and  prone  to  the  more 
evil  forms  of  occultism  and  superstition.  Com- 
plete absence  of  the  mount  betrays  inaptitude 
for  science,  and  no  capacity  for  commerce. 
Many  lines  on  the  mount  (d,  Plate  X.)  denote 
science  and  eloquence  ;  little  flecks  and  dashes 
indicate  a  babbler  and  chatterer.  Lines  on  the 
percussion  indicate  liaisons  and  affairs  of  the 
heart  if  horizontal  (e,  Plate  XI.),  children  if 
vertical.  A  marriage  line  terminated  by  a  star 
proves  that  the  love-affair  has  terminated  with  a 
death  (f,  Plate  XI.).  A  great  star  crossing  the 
vertical  lines  on  the  percussion  indicates  steril- 
ity. If  the  mount  is  quite  smooth,  it  announces 
extreme  coolness  and  sang-froid. 

Below  this  we  have  the  mount  of  Mars  (F, 
Plate  IX.),  and  the  immediately  contiguous  part 
of  the  palm  is  called  the  plain  of  Mars  (H,  Plate 


IO4  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

IX.).  The  mount  denotes  resistance,  the  plain 
aggression.  If  the  mount  is  prominent,  you  are 
defensive  rather  than  offensive ;  if  the  plain  is 
developed,  we  find  an  aggressive,  encroaching 
spirit.  A  subject  with  the  mount  of  Mars  high 
in  the  hand  is  cool-tempered,  magnanimous, 
and  generous.  If  it  is  excessive,  i.e.,  spreading 
into  the  plain  of  Mars,  he  is  furious,  brusque, 
cruel,  violent,  and  defiant  in  manner.  The 
absence  of  the  mount  denotes  cowardice  and 
childishness. 

Lower  still  upon  the  hand  we  have  the  mount 
of  the  Moon.  This  indicates  imagination,  poesy, 
melancholy,  a  love  of  mystery,  solitude,  and 
silence,  and  a  tendency  to  revery.  Such  sub- 
jects love  harmony,  rather  than  melody,  in 
music ;  they  are  capricious,  changeable,  and  in- 
clined to  be  idle  ;  fond  of  voyaging,  mystical, 
and  void  of  self-confidence  or  perseverance.  In 
a  hard  hand  we  get  a  dangerous  activity  and 
imagination.  Excess  of  the  mount  gives  irrita- 
bility, discontent,  superstition,  fanaticism,  and 
error;  absence  argues  want  of  imagination  and 
of  poetry  in  the  disposition.  Lines  on  the  mount 
(g,  Plate  XI.)  give  prophetic  dreams,  visions,  pre- 
sentiments, and  the  like.  These  are  also  shown 
by  a  curved  line  extending  to  the  mount  of  Mer 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  105 

cury  (/  in  Plate  X.).  Horizontal  lines  from 
the  percussion  (g  in  Plate  X.)  denote  voyages  ; 
terminating  in  a  star  (Ji,  Plate  X.)  these  lines 
indicate  a  voyage  which  will  be  terminated  by 
death.  A  large  star  on  the  mount  (h,  Plate  XI.) 
denotes  hysteria,  and,  with  other  concomitant 
signs,  madness.  Many  crossing  lines  (i,  Plate 
XI.)  betray  self-torment  and  worry.  An  angle 
or  circle  on  the  mount  denotes  a  danger  cf 
death  by  drowning. 

The  last  mount  with  which  we  have  to  deal 
is  that  of  Venus,  at  the  root  of  the  thumb. 
This  mount  gives  to  a  subject  beauty,  grace, 
benevolence,  melody  in  music  (as  opposed  to 
harmony),  and,  indeed,  all  the  more  feminine 
attributes  of  character.  Such  people  are  great 
lovers  of  and  seekers  after  pleasure,  are  gay 
and  always  charming.  In  excess,  the  mount 
betrays  debauchery,  effrontery,  license,  incon- 
stancy, and  other  excesses.  Absence  of  the 
mount  shows  coldness,  laziness,  and  selfishness. 
Lines  on  the  mount  always  indicate  warmth  of 
passion  and  strong  affection.  A  line  extending 
to  the  line  of  head  indicates  a  worry  (j,  Plate 
XI.) ;  extending  to  the  mount  of  Mercury,  it 
denotes  a  marriage  (k  k  in  Plate  XL),  so  does  a 
strong  line  coming  from  the  phalanx  of  logic  to 


106  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

the  line  of  life  (/  /,  Plate  XI.)  which  surrounds 
the  mount  of  Venus.  Islands  on  the  mount 
(z,  Plate  X.)  denote  opportunities  of  marriage 
which  have  been  missed. 

These  are  the  interpretations  of  the  mounts. 
I  shall  conclude  this  opusculum  by  noticing  the 
principal  lines  and  their  significations. 

The  most  important  line  in  the  hand  is,  of 
course,  the  Line  of  Life  (a  a  in  Plate  II.),  which 
surrounds  the  mount  of  Venus.  Long,  clear, 
straight,  and  well-colored,  it  denotes  long  life, 
good  health,  and  a  good  character  and  disposi- 
tion. Pale  and  broad,  it  indicates  ill-health, 
evil  instincts,  and  a  weak,  envious  disposition. 
Thick  and  red,  it  betrays  violence  and  brutality 
of  mind ;  chained,  it  indicates  delicacy ;  and  of 
varying  thicknesses,  a  capricious,  fickle  temper. 
The  ages  at  which  events  have  happened  to  one 
may  be  told  by  the  points  at  which  they  have 
marked  the  line ;  for  this  purpose,  it  is  divided 
into  segments  of  five  and  ten  years,  commen- 
cing at  the  head  of  the  line  (Plate  XII.),  and 
breaks  and  so  on  in  the  line  indicate  events  at 
the  age  at  which  the  breaks  occur.  I  have 
treated  of  this  subject  very  carefully  in  "A 
Manual  of  Cheirosophy." 


Plate  Xn.- AGES   UPON  THE  LINES  OF 
LIFE  AND  FORTUNE, 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  IOO, 

The  shorter  the  line,  the  shorter  the  life  ;  and 
from  the  point  at  which  the  line  terminates  in 
both  hands,  may  be  accurately  predicted  the 
time  of  death.  A  break  in  the  line  is  always 
an  illness  ;  if  in  both  hands,  there  is  a  grave 
danger  of  death,  especially  if  the  lower  branch 
turn  in  towards  the  mount  of  Venus.  Ceasing 
abruptly  with  a  few  little  parallel  lines  (j  in 
Plate  X.),  the  death  will  be  sudden ;  a  quantity 
of  little  bars  across  the  line  (a  in  Plate  XIII.) 
denote  continual  but  not  very  severe  illnesses. 
Broken  inside  a  square  (b,  Plate  XIII.),  it  is  a 
sign  of  a  recovery  from  a  serious  illness,  and  a 
bar  across  the  broken  ends  (c,  Plate  XIII.)  has 
the  same  significance.  However  broken  up  the 
line  may  be,  a  sister  line  (ii,  Plate  II.)  will  always 
strengthen  and  mend  it,  and  is  a  sign  of  excel- 
lent good  fortune.  A  tassel  at  the  end  (d,  Plate 
XIII.)  is  a  sign  of  poverty  in  old  age;  and  a  ray 
going  to  the  mount  of  the  Moon  (e,  Plate  XIII.) 
signifies  that  the  head  will  be  affected  by  these 
troubles. 

Rays  across  the  hand  from  the  mount  of 
Venus  (J  k,  Plate  XI.)  always  denote  worries, 
and  the  age  at  which  they  occur  is  shown  by 
the  point  at  which  the  rays  terminate.  Their 
variation  is  infinite,  and  I  have  discussed  them 


110  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

fully  elsewhere.  At  the  present  moment  I  can- 
not  do  more  —  or  less  —  than  refer  to  them. 
A  ray  ascending  to  the  mount  of  Jupiter  (/, 
Plate  XIII.)  indicates  success  attained  by  merit 
with  lofty  aims,  ambition,  and  egoism.  Branches 
ascending  from  the  line  (a,  Plate  X.)  denote 
ambition,  and  nearly  always  riches. 

If  the  three  lines  are  all  joined  together  (h, 
Plate  XIII.),  it  indicates  grave  danger  of  misfor- 
tune and  sudden  death.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
the  line  of  head,  instead  of  being  joined  to,  is 
separated  from  the  line  of  life  (k,  Plate  X.),  it 
indicates  carelessness,  extreme  self-reliance,  and 
generally  foolhardiness  in  consequence. 

An  island  in  the  line  of  life  (m,  Plate  XL)  is 
generally  an  indication  of  some  mystery  as  re- 
gards the  birth  of  the  subject,  or  else  an  illness 
during  the  years  which  it  covers. 

The  Line  of  Llead,  which  is  the  next  great  line 
in  the  hand,  should  be  clear  and  well  colored, 
extending  from  the  beginning  of  the  line  of  life 
to  the  base  of  the  mount  of  Mars,  without  fork, 
break,  or  ramification.  Pale  and  broad,  it  de- 
notes feebleness  or  lack  of  intellect  ;  short,  it 
argues  a  weak  will;  chained,  lack  of  fixity  of 
mind ;  very  long  and  thin,  it  denotes  treachery 
and  avarice.  A  long  line  of  head  gives  domi- 


Plate  XIII.- THE  LINES. 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  113 

nation  and  self-control  to  a  character ;  if  it  starts 
from  the  line  of  life  under  the  mount  of  Saturn, 
it  shows  that  the  education  has  been  acquired 
comparatively  late  in  life,  having  been  neglected 
in  early  youth.  Such  subjects  are  generally 
benevolent,  and  are  generally  great  theorists. 
Stopping  under  the  mount  of  Saturn  is  a  sign 
of  a  sudden  check  to  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment in  early  youth.  Joined  closely  to  the  line 
of  life  for  some  distance  at  its  commencement, 
it  indicates  timidity  and  want  of  self-confidence 
in  a  weak  hand,  caution  and  circumspection  in 
a  strong  one. 

Declining  upon  the  mount  of  the  Moon,  it  is 
a  strong  sign  of  a  wild  imagination.  Coming 
very  low  (i,  Plate  XIII.),  it  leads  to  mysticism 
and  folly,  often  culminating  in  madness,  to 
which  there  is  a  strong  tendency.  In  a  strong 
hand  it  gives  a  talent  for  literature ;  but  in 
a  weak  one,  if  it  terminates  in  a  star,  with 
a  star  on  the  Mount  of  Saturn,  it  is  a  sign  of 
hereditary  madness.  Turning  up  towards  the 
line  of  heart  (n,  Plate  XL),  it  denotes  a  person 
with  a  weak  mind,  who  lets  his  heart  and  pas- 
sions domineer  over  his  reason.  If  it  touch  the 
line  of  heart,  it  is  a  sign  of  an  early  death.  A 
break  in  the  line  indicates  an  accident  to  the 


IJ4  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

head,  especially  under  the  mount  of  Saturn  ; 
under  these  circumstances,  the  break  has  been 
said  to  be  a  sign  that  the  subject  will  be  hung. 
Ragged,  it  denotes  a  bad  memory.  Forked  at 
the  end,  with  one  of  the  "  prongs  "  descending 
towards  the  mount  of  the  Moon,  is  a  sure  indi- 
cation of  hypocrisy,  lying,  and  deceit,  (/,  Plate 
X.).  Such  subjects  are  clever  sophists,  always 
on  their  guard,  and  ready  with  excuses  when 
necessary,  reflecting  that  necessity  is  the  mother 
of  invention.  With  a  good  line  of  Apollo,  it  is 
a  sign  of  great  talent.  If  one  "prong"  go  up 
to  the  line  of  heart,  it  is  the  indication  of  a  fatal 
love-affair.  A  cross  and  a  break  in  the  line  (/, 
Plate  XIII.)  are  a  sure  prognostic  of  a  violent 
death.  An  island  on  the  line  (k,  Plate  XIII.)  is 
a  sign  of  acutely  sensitive  nerves.  A  star  (a, 
Plate  XII.)  is  a  sign  of  a  wound.  A  ray  going 
to  Jupiter  (/,  Plate  XIII.)  betrays  extreme  ego- 
ism, and  consequent  good  luck. 

The  next  line  is  the  Line  of  Heart.  It  should 
extend  clear,  well  traced,  and  of  a  good  color, 
from  the  mount  of  Jupiter  to  the  base  of  that 
of  Mercury.  According  to  the  length  of  the 
line  we  find  stronger  or  weaker  affections.  If 
it  goes  right  across  the  hand,  from  side  to  side, 
it  indicates  excessive  affection,  resulting  in  a 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  115 

morbid  jealousy.  If  it  is  chained  (c,  Plate  X.), 
the  subject  is  an  inveterate  flirt ;  bright  red, 
it  denotes  violence  in  affairs  of  the  heart ;  pale 
and  broad,  on  the  contrary,  it  indicates  a  cold- 
blooded rout  if  not  a  worn-out  libertine.  Very, 
very  thin  and  bare,  it  is  a  sign  of  murder. 
Turning  up  and  disappearing  between  the  first 
and  second  fingers  (o,  Plate  XL),  it  indicates  a 
long  life  of  unremitting  labor.  Broken  up,  it  is 
a  sign  of  inconstancy,  and  often  of  misogyny. 
Forked,  with  one  ray  of  the  fork  going  on  to 
the  mount  of  Jupiter  (;//,  Plate  X.),  is  a  lucky 
sign  of  great  good  fortune,  and  of  subsequent 
riches;  it  also  indicates  enthusiasm  in  love, 
while  spots  on  the  line  denote  conquests  in 
love,  and  according  to  the  mount  under  which 
you  find  the  spot  you  can  tell  the  nature  of  the 
person  with  whom  the  love-affair  has  taken 
place.  Turning  clown  to  the  line  of  head  is  a 
sign  of  an  unhappy  marriage,  or  of  very  deep 
griefs  of  the  heart.  Lines  ascending  from  that 
of  the  heart  (b,  Plate  XII.)  show  curiosity,  re- 
search, and  versatility,  but  very  often  useless- 
ness. 

The  fourth  great  line  in  the  hand  is  that  of 
Saturn,  or  of  Fortune,  which  rises  through  the 
whole  hand,  from  the  wrist  to  the  mount  of 


Il6  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

Saturn.  It  may  start  from  the  wrist  (/,  Plate 
XIII.),  from  the  line  of  life  (m,  Plate  XIIL),  or 
from  the  mount  of  the  Moon,  (n,  Plate  XIIL). 
If  it  start  from  the  line  of  life,  it  shows  that 
one's  fortune  results  from  one's  own  deserts; 
rising  from  the  wrist,  it  is  always  a  sign  of 
good  luck ;  and  starting  from  the  mount  of  the 
Moon,  the  fortune  comes  entirely  from  a  caprice, 
generally  of  the  opposite  sex.  Sometimes  it 
turns  off,  and  goes  to  some  other  mount,  instead 
of  to  that  of  Saturn  :  thus,  if  to  Mercury,  we 
3nd  success  in  commerce,  eloquence,  and  sci- 
ence ;  if  to  Apollo,  fortune  from  art ;  if  to  Jupi- 
ter, satisfied  pride  and  realized  ambition.  If 
the  line  cut  through  the  mount,  and  extend 
on  to  the  finger  (a,  Plate  XIIL),  we  get  a  great 
fatality,  which  is  either  good  or  bad,  according 
to  the  general  appearance  of  the  hand.  If  the 
line  of  fortune  is  stopped  at  that  of  head,  it 
shows  that  an  impulse  of  the  head,  or  error  of 
calculation,  has  stopped  one's  fortune ;  stopped 
at  the  line  of  heart,  the  ill-luck  results  from  a 
love-affair. 

Twisted  or  ragged  at  the  base,  it  indicates  ill 
luck  in  early  life.  Split  and  twisted  through- 
out, it  denotes  ill  luck  and  ill  health  through 
abuse  of  pleasure ;  or,  at  any  rate,  continual 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  1 1/ 

quarrels  arising  therefrom.  An  irregular  line 
betrays  irritability;  cut  by  little  lines  on  the 
mount  (p,  Plate  XIII.),  it  indicates  misfortune 
late  in  life.  Forked  at  the  base,  the  life  is  a 
continual  struggle  of  ambition  and  of  love  ;  both, 
however,  will  be  successful  and  fortunate,  if  the 
line  go  well  up  to  the  mount.  Any  cross  upon 
the  line  (;/,  Plate  X.)  indicates  a  change  in  the 
life  or  in  the  position  of  the  subject.  A  star 
at  the  base  of  the  line  (o,  Plate  X.)  shows  a 
misfortune  in  early  youth,  happening  probably 
to  one's  parents  ;  especially  if  there  is  also  a 
cross  on  the  mount  of  Venus  (/,  Plate  X.), 
when  the  misfortune  arises  through  the  death 
of  a  relation. 

An  island  on  the  line  of  fortune  (q,  Plate  X.) 
nearly  always  betrays  a  conjugal  infidelity ;  and 
if  a  star  appear  on  the  mount,  it  has  brought 
great  misfortune  in  its  train.  A  malformed  line 
with  an  island  at  its  base  is  a  sign  of  illegiti- 
macy. If,  however,  the  rest  of  the  hand  is 
good,  this  island  only  shows  a  hopeless  passion; 
if  with  a  star  on  Jupiter,  the  passion  has  been 
for  some  celebrated  or  exalted  person. 

Less  important  than  these  last  four,  but  not 
less  interesting,  is  the  Line  of  Apollo,  or  Bril- 
liancy (e  e,  Plate  II.),  which  rises  from  the  plain 


Il8  PRACTICAL   CHEIROSOPHY. 

of  Mars,  or  the  mount  of  the  Moon,  and  goes 
to  the  mount  of  Apollo.  Whenever  it  is  pres- 
ent to  any  marked  degree,  we  find  glory,  celeb- 
rity, art,  wealth,  merit,  and  success.  It  is 
best  when  it  is  neat  and  straight,  making  a 
clear  cut  upon  the  mount.  Such  subjects  have, 
in  all  their  successes,  the  calmness  of  natural 
talent,  and  the  contentment  of  a  proper  self- 
esteem.  It  must  always  appear  more  or  less 
in  a  lucky  hand.  If,  however,  the  fingers  are 
twisted,  and  the  palm  is  hollow,  it  is  a  bad  thing 
to  have  this  line  in  the  hand,  for  these  indica- 
tions show  an  ill  use  of  the  talents  denoting  it. 
If  it  is  absent  from  a  hand,  it  denotes  failures  in 
the  undertakings  of  the  subject.  Visible,  but 
much  broken  up,  it  denotes  a  jack-of-all-trades, 
and  betrays  an  eccentricity  in  matters  artistic. 
Many  little  lines  on  the  mount  (e,  Plate  X.)  de- 
note an  excess  of  the  artistic  qualities  which 
bring  the  subject  to  naught.  If  the  line  is 
equally  divided  on  the  mount  (d,  Plate  XL),  it 
shows  that  the  subject  has  two  counterbalan- 
cing artistic  instincts ;  if,  however,  the  line  forms 
a  trident  (g,  Plate  XIIL),  it  is  a  sure  sign  of 
glory  and  of  success.  Cross  lines  on  the  mount 
(c,  Plate  XII.)  signify  obstacles  to  the  success  in 
art.  A  star  at  the  top  of  the  line  is  a  sign  of 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  1 19 

great  good  fortune.  A  black  spot  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  lines  of  heart  and  of  Apollo  indi- 
cates blindness. 

The  Line  of  Liver,  or  Health  (//,  Plate  II.), 
comes  from  the  base  of  the  line  of  life,  and  goes 
towards  —  but  seldom  as  far  as  —  the  mount  of 
Mercury.  Clearly  traced,  it  seldom  exists  in  a 
hand ;  but  when  it  is  found,  it  is  a  sign  of  good 
health,  gayety,  and  success,  with  long  life  if  the 
line  extend  up  to  the  mount  of  Mercury.  Com- 
plete absence  of  line,  far  from  being  a  bad  sign, 
gives  to  a  subject  great  vivacity  both  of  man- 
ner and  of  conversation.  Any  unevenness  of 
color  in  the  line  denotes  bad  health;  much 
twisted,  it  is  a  sign  of  biliousness  ;  much  broken 
up,  of  a  weak  or  disordered  liver.  Forked  at 
the  top,  it  gives  a  great  capacity  for  occult 
sciences  (d,  Plate  XII.).  A  coming  sickness 
marks  itself  on  this  line  by  a  little  deep-red 
cross-ray ;  a  past  sickness  leaves  a  gap.  Well 
joined  to  the  line  of  head,  it  betokens  a  strong 
aptitude  for  all  kinds  of  natural  magic  or  psy- 
chology. An  island  in  the  line  (e,  Plate  XII.) 
denotes  a  somnambulist. 

Of  the  girdle  of  Venus  (gg,  Plate  II.),  we  can 
dispose  in  a  few  words.  Wherever  you  find  it 
in  a  hand,  it  is  a  sign  of  hysteria  and  emotion. 


I2O  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

You  may  generally  look  upon  it  as  a  bad  sign, 
for  these  qualities  in  a  bad  or  weak  hand  lead 
very  frequently  to  the  lower  forms  of  vice  ;  but 
this  is  not  invariable,  especially  if,  instead  of 
being  a  complete  semicircle,  it  goes  off  on  the 
mount  of  Mercury  (;/  n,  Plate  XIII.),  when  it 
becomes  merely  a  sign  of  great  energy  and 
enthusiasm. 

If  the  girdle  is  much  broken  up,  it  is  an  in- 
dication of  the  lower  passions  of  our  natures  ; 
and  as  I  have  discussed  the  question  in  A  Man- 
ual of  Cheirosophy,  there  is  no  need  to  allude  to 
it  here.  The  curious  are  referred  to  that  vol- 
ume upon  the  point. 

On  the  wrist  are  found  certain  lines  which 
are  known  as  the  Rascettes,  or  Bracelets  of  Life 
(h  h  in  Plate  II.).  Each  of  these  represents  from 
five  and  twenty  to  thirty  years  of  life.  The 
general  maximum  is  three  of  these  lines ;  and 
when  clearly  traced,  they  denote  health,  good 
luck,  and  a  tranquil  life.  Chained,  the  rascettes 
indicate  a  laborious  but  fortunate  life ;  very 
badly  formed,  the  lines  are  an  indication  of 
extravagance.  Broken  in  the  centre,  and  turn- 
ing up  towards  the  line  of  fortune  (r,  Plate  X.) 
is  a  sign  of  vanity  and  of  deceit.  A  star  in  the 
centre  of  the  rascette  (s,  Plate  XIII.)  is  nearly 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  121 

always  a  sign  of  unexpected  good  fortune. 
Lines  extending  from  the  wrist  to  the  mounts 
always  betoken  long  voyages  and  good  luck. 

These  are  the  lines  of  the  palms,  as  far  as  it 
is  possible  for  us  to  go  into  them.  There  exist, 
of  course,  in  every  hand,  lines  which  do  not 
come  under  any  of  these  rules ;  but  the  expert 
in  cheirosophy  will  have  no  difficulty  in  reading 
these  by  reference  to  their  position  in  the  hand 
with  regard  to  the  mounts  and  the  principal 
lines. 

As  to  the  signs  which  are  to  be  found  in 
the  hands,  I  have  alluded  to  them  from  time 
to  time  during  the  foregoing  remarks,  and  their 
significance  will  have  been  more  or  les"5  gath- 
ered. 

A  star  is  always  an  indication  of  some  great 
event  beyond  our  own  control,  it  may  be  either 
good  or  bad  ;  but  it  is  generally  the  latter. 

A  square  is  always  protection  from  some 
great  danger ;  a  spot  is  generally,  if  not  inva- 
riably, a  malady  ;  the  island  is  always  a  mystery, 
something  secret,  and  generally  a  disgraceful' 
circumstance,  connected  with  the  line  upon 
which  it  is  found.  A  triangle  (/,  Plate  XII.) 
is  a  symbol  of  a  science. 


1 22  PRACTICAL  '  CHEIROSOPHY. 

A  cross  is  seldom  favorable,  signifying  gener. 
ally  an  obstacle  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  it  usually 
highly  accentuates  the  qualities  of  the  mounts 
and  lines  on  which  it  is  found.  A  cross,  by-the- 
bye,  in  the  quadrangle,  i.e.,  the  space  between 
the  lines  of  head  and  of  heart,  the  consideration 
of  which  the  limits  of  space  have  compelled 
me  to  omit  (s  in  Plate  X.),  is  always  a  sign 
of  superstition,  and  of  a  penchant  to  occult 
science. 

Cross  lines  on  a  mount  (c,  Plate  XII.)  are 
always  an  obstacle  to  that  mount,  and  accen- 
tuate its  bad  qualities. 

In  the  foregoing  remarks,  I  have  endeavored 
to  give  you  a  short  outline  of  some  of  the  inter- 
esting points  to  be  noted  in  connection  with 
our  hands.  To  hear  the  science  ridiculed,  I  am 
perfectly  prepared.  It  was  the  word  "absurd," 
says  Balzac,  which  condemned  steam,  which  con- 
demned the  inventions  of  gunpowder,  printing, 
spectacles,  engraving,  and,  more  recently,  aerial 
navigation,  and  photography.  The  self-compla- 
cent stolidity  of  lazy  incredulity  is  invincible ; 
but  people  who  laugh  at  the  science  are,  to  the 
possessors  of  this  knowledge,  like  the  people  in 
the  gallery  at  a  theatre,  who  can  find  no  means 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  123 

of  expressing  their  disapproval  save  by  whis- 
tling and  cat-calling.  It  is  as  if  people  who 
were  born  blind  laughed  at  people  who  could 
see,  not  believing  in  the  sense  of  sight.  Nay, 
more,  it  is  the  blindness  of  people  who  refuse 
to  see  ;  for  here  is  the  science,  and  any  one 
who  will  learn  it  may  do  so  with  the  greatest 
ease  if  he  only  have  patience  and  intelligence. 

There  are  even  people  who  call  it  wicked  ;  as 
if  this  intimate  knowledge  of  one's  fellow-men, 
and  the  works  of  an  omnipotent  Creator,  did 
not  tend  to  raise  the  hearts  of  men.  They  say 
it  is  wicked  to  go  beyond  the  limits  which 
nature  has  set  upon  our  knowledge.  They 
might  as  well  condemn  as  wicked  the  use  of 
spectacles,  of  telescopes,  of  microscopes,  and  of 
all  instruments  which  tend  to  enlarge  the  field 
of  our  research.  But  I  quote  once  more  the 
words  of  Sir  Richard  Owen  :  "  Our  thoughts  are 
free  to  soar,  as  far  as  any  legitimate  analogy 
may  seem  to  guide  them  rightly,  across  the 
boundless  ocean  of  unknown  truth." 

The  acquisition  of  this  science  is  a  vast  sys- 
tem of  mental  training ;  in  its  research  it  covers 
a  vast  historical  and  archaeological  field,  and  ed- 
ucates the  mind  to  new  and  more  acute  habits 
of  observation.  What  is  more  necessary  to  us 


124  PRACTICAL    CHEIROSOPHY. 

than  that  our  first  indelible  impression  of  a 
man  should  be  the  right  one  ?  And,  by  means 
of  this  science,  I  claim  that  we  are  able  at  a 
glance  to  comprehend  the  mental  development 
of  whose-soever  hands  we  are  able  to  see.  It  is 
not,  of  course,  sufficient  to  buy  a  book,  and  read 
it  up ;  especially  not  the  ancient  ones  of  which 
I  have  placed  a  bibliography  at  the  end  of  "  The 
Science  of  the  Hand."  The  science  must  be 
continually  practised,  so  that  the  comparative 
size  and  development  of  a  hand  may  be  seen 
at  a  glance.  The  knowledge  will  soon  come  if 
the  exercise  is  continual,  —  personal  experiment, 
said  Coleridge,  is  necessary  in  order  to  correct 
our  own  observation  of  the  experiments  which 
Nature  herself  makes  for  us,  which  are  the 
phenomena  of  the  universe.  There  must  always 
be,  as  I  have  said  before,  a  certain  amount  of 
mystery  remaining;  for  all  science  is  myste- 
rious. Even  the  origin  of  muscular  power  and 
animal  heat,  the  existence  of  which  we  shall 
hardly  find  any  one  to  deny,  are  unknown  and 
mysterious.  The  more  we  investigate  this  sci- 
ence, the  clearer  and  the  simpler  it  becomes  ; 
and  even  when  we  cannot  exactly  define  the 
cause,  the  invariable  effect  is  such  as  to  establish 
cheirosophy  as  a  fixed  and  exact  science. 


CHEIROMANCY  OR  PALMISTRY.  12$ 

You  must  be  prepared  to  find  in  this,  as  in 
all  other  sciences,  occasional  anomalies,  contra- 
dictions. These  must  not  dismay  you.  You 
will  soon  learn  to  profit  as  much  by  your  fail- 
ures as  by  your  successes. 

And  with  this,  I  have  done.  If  I  have  suc- 
ceeded in  opening  to  you  another  page  of  the 
great  Book  of  Nature,  I  shall  feel  myself  more 
than  repaid  for  the  time  which  I  have  spent  in 
tabulating  these  few  notes,  —  too  few,  alas  !  to 
give  you  more  than  a  very  meagre  idea  of  this 
great  science.  And  so  I  conclude.  Let  me 
hope  that  I  have  made  clearer  to  you  the  sim- 
plicity, the  beauty,  and  the  enormous  utilitariar 
value  of  PRACTICAL  CHEIROSOPHY. 

IOTH  MARCH,  1887. 


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